Chronicles of the Commonwealth
by Cearbhail
Summary: Welcome to the Commonwealth, a horrifying wasteland filled with deathclaws, raiders, and crazy individuals who think they know what's best for everyone, but are way off course. In the middle of these crazy people is Nora... and her husband Nate, two pre-war veterans that have unfortunately ended up 200 years in the future after a nuclear explosion destroyed their society.
1. Pre-War sure is Nice

**Cearbhail:**

 _and here we have my newest project: Project Chronicles of the Commonwealth. Sorry about the description. I'll work on it once I get better acclimated to this story. If you want the full version, just read it off my profile page.  
_

 _So... welcome. If you know me, if you know how I write, and how I like to write things... and if you agree with my writing style then... you'll undoubtedly enjoy this. This first chapter will probably show how random this story will be. If you enjoy that sort of thing, then welcome. If not, well... goodbye!_

 _Enjoy ^^ ..._

* * *

[Nate] born 2049

"War. War never changes. In the year 1945, my great-great-grandfather, serving in the army, wondered when he'd get to go home to his wife and the son he'd never seen. He got his wish when U.S. ended World War 2 by dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The world awaited Armageddon… instead, something miraculous happened. We began to use atomic energy not as a weapon but as a nearly limitless source of power. People enjoyed luxuries once thought the realm of science fiction. Domestic robots. Fusion powered cars. Portable computers. But then… in the 21st century, people awoke from the American Dream. Years of consumption led to shortages of every major resource. The entire world unraveled. Peace… became a distant memory. It is now the year 2077; we stand on the brink of total war. … And I am afraid. For myself, for my wife, for my infant son. Because if my time in the army taught me one thing… it's that war… war never changes."

If I just kept practicing it, I wouldn't have to worry about unnecessary pausing during my speech at the special event at the veterans' hall in Concord. The very special event… which I couldn't remember anything about… for some reason. From the speech I've been preparing for a few weeks now, I'm almost certain it has something to do with the limitless potential of ending this war with China. The advances we might have if we pooled our remaining resources together… maybe build a space ship, leave this planet… and go find somewhere else to populate and deplete.

As I rinsed my newly shaven face off in the sink, I found myself staring in the bathroom's mirror, almost fully consumed with steam condensation. I felt a smooth hand plant itself on my bare back, sliding up to my shoulder.

"You'll do just fine at the special veterans' event tonight, honey." Nora said reassuringly as she slid up next to me. As she walked up next to me, she nudged me to the side, pushing me away from the mirror. "Now, it's my turn. I have a special court case today. I'm defending someone important for some important company that's attempting to do something special for some reason… perhaps the environment. Perhaps I'm an environmental lawyer, like that really old show 'How I Met Your Mother' or something like that."

I nodded. "Isn't it weird that we can't really remember anything previous to this point, excluding vague instances of recollection?" It's been bothering me all morning. It was almost like my life before this moment wasn't very… important or something like that. I hated that the concussion I took in Anchorage, which occasionally left me momentarily forgetful of things… like my whole life.

As I stared at my own reflection, trying to figure out whatever it was that was bothering me, I just shook the feeling off. This case of forgetfulness was the worst it's ever been. Oh well, I'd just get myself ready for my event tonight and hopefully get through it without really remembering anyone I've had history with.

Nora, lost in her own thoughts, smirked at the very thought. "I'm sure it's just exhaustion from having a four month-old baby that keeps us up all night. You know what sleep deprivation can do to the mind. Make you think crazy things… like… maybe we're just robots with programed memories of once living sentient beings… and perhaps we're being uploaded to our synthetic bodies as we speak… being carefully placed in our dead versions' locations, all with the intention of one lonely boy finally having some amount of closure with his or her long lost parents…" She paused as she looked at her reflection in the mirror.

I couldn't stop myself from laughing as I nudged her aside so I could comb my hair. "You're just the weirdest person I've ever met."

She smiled, nudging me back. "You know you love my imagination." She started putting lipstick on. "You never know though… I might be right. We could end up being synthetic beings programmed with the exact purpose of living a simulated reunion with our long lost son or something like that… so that the dying man can have some amount of closure with his long lost loved ones."

I shook my head. I did not want to go down that road. That was a very convoluted plot, with the premise that our entire lives were false to begin with but we managed to make something out if it… like Soma, or something like that. "Please do not do this to me before we go to the Concord. Speaking of which…" I looked at my lovely wife as she started preparing her mouthwash. "Will you be there tonight?"

She paused right before she took the hit of mouthwash. "We'd have to find a babysitter."

I shrugged. "Do we really have to? We have Codsworth. He can watch the baby."

Somewhere from down the hall, I could hear the British butler bot speaking. "Why hello. You're a poor lost little boy trying to earn enough money to travel back home to Concord to be with your family? Why… how much would you need to get there? 1,000 dollars. Well, that seems unreasonably high… it is just down the road by a mile or so… but… dear poor boy, of course I would never get between you and your family. Here, take 3,000, just in case you need to buy some lunch snacks."

Nora smirked, crossing her arms. "You were saying?"

I sighed. "Yeah, I see your point."

She nodded. "You can't win against a lawyer of my skill. My Charisma and Intelligence are maxed out!" She gently punched me across the chest. "Now, if you don't mind, I believe we have some breakfast to eat."

She walked out of the room, pinching my butt as she did so. I saw her wink playfully at me as she exited the room. I still can't believe how we met. It was at Anchorage. She's Chinese. And she was one of China's Intelligence operators, but once her unit was hit hard, and she was the only one surviving… she managed to sneak across Alaska and into Canada. She got her law degree over there as a refugee from the war in Alaska. We ran into each other several times on the battlefield. Each time was… intimate to say the least. Intelligence isn't her only skill. She was quite the skilled assassin. Can't tell you how many times I tried to put a bullet in her, but she moved like the shadows she trained in. She tried to put bullets in me too, but I'm just as lucky as she is quick on her feet. Both of us were pretty unkillable, and I met her in Canada during one of my allotted (company enforced) days off. It had been a year since I last met her, and she was already halfway done with her degree.

It was quite the scene in the local Starbucks. She was on her laptop, writing some fanfiction for some game she was obsessed with, and… I was buying some coffee because I needed it to cope with my alcohol abuse. And once I bought my coffee, I took a seat down, opening a paper to gaze at the local news of whoever won the last game of baseball. And that's when I saw her raven black hair. She was glancing down at her laptop, completely lost in her work. I knew it was her, and that flipped me into soldier mode. I picked up my coffee and casually made my way over to her, keeping my face obscured by the paper in my hands.

I had a 10 mm pistol tucked in my pants, ready to be used at any second. I'm a soldier, I had a duty to put her down. Well, as I approached her from behind, her screen suddenly went dark. I guess she was loading a new webpage to research on. Either way… she could suddenly see me standing behind her, one hand on my coffee, the other reaching into my pants for my pistol. She locked eyes with me and I saw her flip into her assassin mode. She moved so quickly, flipping out of her chair, wrapping her legs around my neck, and throwing me not only under her but under her chair as well. She had me effectively pinned, my gun hand stuck in my pants.

"Look pervert…" She growled to me before stopping altogether. "You?" She squinted at me. "You're still alive?"

I nodded. "Yeah. And so are you. Want to fix that?"

…

And that's the story of how I met Shaun's mother… well… off duty anyway. I cannot wait to tell Shaun the story. Of course there was more to the story. Police, guards, shooting, jumping over tables, some conspiracy involving her law instructor working for the Chinese government to collect data on a U.S. company through Canada business channels, and Nora may have been set up to take the fall for him. And I may have been the only non-hostile covering her back while we exposed the professor for the spy he was. Three days of running, gunning, evading Canada's finest… all six of them. And I may have ended up kissing Nora when we were finally surrounded by police helicopters, firing miniguns down at us. Power armored up and everything… it still counts as a first kiss. I think.

Either way, ever since then, Nora and I have been together. Got married three years later. And now… here we are. I'm standing in front of a bathroom mirror, still just looking at my reflection, deciding whether or not I even want to go to this super special awesome mega veterans' event tonight or not. I sighed as I pushed away from the mirror. It doesn't matter how long I stare at it, I'm not going to suddenly decide today is a day I can just pretend to forget and sleep off. Heck, it's not like me going to this veterans thing will be the end of the world or something.

Feeling slightly nostalgic, a common thing for someone in their late 20's, I walked around the house, talking mostly to myself about the random objects we had lying around. Nora seemed to be doing the same thing. She randomly picked up her degree, smiling. "I put in a lot of late nights earning this… I'm glad." She caught my eye, smiling at me. "Worth every second."

I smiled back. "So, honey. What do you say to going to the park later?"

She was about to answer right before there was a knock on the door. Nora rolled her eyes, almost pulling out a hidden knife she kept in an arm sleeve she always wore. "Jeez… them again?" She walked over to the door, opening it up.

On the other side of the door stood a ginger wearing a trench coat. "Excuse me, ma'am. Mind if I ask you a few questions?"

"Nick Valentine…" I said to the police detective.

He nodded to me. "Hey, Nate. Is this a bad time? I was in the neighborhood and I heard about a missing child. Maybe ten years-old; runaway from home. He has a nasty habit of using some story he tells to families with nanny bots. He tells his little sob story to the nanny bots programmed to care for children, milk them for money. I know you have a Mister Handy, and I was wondering if he may have seen the child."

I nodded. "I heard the exchange. Not even five minutes ago. Took 3,000 from us."

Nick Valentine tipped his hat to us. "Thank you for your time. I'll be off then. This brat won't find himself. I'll see if I can get your 3,000 back."

"Thanks, Valentine." Nora said, closing the door behind her. When the door was shut, she let go of a held breath. "Jeez…"

I couldn't stop myself from cracking a smile. "Will you calm down?"

She glanced over at me, glaring right at me. "You can't deny it… something feels off. We just can't piece it together yet."

There was another louder rap on the door. And it made Nora almost jump out of her skin. "Jeez!" She turned around, opening the door. "Nick, we already told you…"

On the other side of the door was a different ginger wearing a similar trench coat, only this one had a Vault-Tec badge attached to it. "Good morning. Vault-Tec calling!"

Nora pinched the bridge of her nose. She waved me forward. "Nate, you deal with this. I'm going to see my son."

I nodded as I walked up to the door. "Oh hey… sorry we've been neglecting your calls. We've been busy." Avoiding any kind of contact with the business/we're guessing political world that was called Vault-Tec.

The Vault-Tec guy waved it off like it was nothing. "I'm just glad I can finally talk with you. I've been trying for days. It's very urgent."

"Very Urgent?"

He nodded vigorously. "Very, very Urgent."

"Like… how very, very urgent?"

"Sir, if we stall this out, you might not make it to your vault in time." He responded. "Why, that big KABLAMMO could hit this town at any time… or over that horizon." He pointed out to the left side of the door. "Or in that lake. Or in that tree… or anywhere. It doesn't matter. If the fallout cloud is bigger than you thumb… well, standing there and measuring it is just plain dumb."

I know this man gets paid by the hour to stand here and chat so I didn't feel like drawing this out for too long. We already had plans to take Shaun to the park today, and Nora has her court case against that very important person for some really important reason. "Ok, well… I'm here. What exactly did you want?"

He walked into my house, wrapping his arm around my shoulder. He waved out to the sky, smiling as he said, "To secure your future, Mr… um…" He checked his list of names. "I'm sorry, I only have Nate as your registered name. Do you have a last name?"

I shrugged. "This has been a crazy morning. I'm super tired and I already have memory problems from the concussion I received during my tour in Alaska." Thanks to my current wife, actually.

The Vault-Tec man nodded as if he understood. "And that's why I'm here today, sir. Your service for our country has earned you and your family a spot in the local vault, Vault 111. It's just down the road, up that curvy dirt path…" He pulled me outside, showing me exactly where the vault was. "Right up at the top of that hill is the entrance. A beautiful spot to marvel at all the surrounding trees and wildlife… as well as the horizon I spoke to you about earlier. Just a beautiful spot to have a nuka cola, blow up some firecrackers, nuke something in a microwave, and just… get solar radiation from over tanning."

Wow, that was a bunch of weirdly specific things that all included radiation and explosions… I wonder if he was trying to tell me something. I tried to be stealthy, like my wife. Ok, years and years of D&D, don't fail me now. "Tell me what you know!" I grabbed him by the collar, pulling him close to me, almost lifting him off the ground with my massive soldier-earned muscles.

The Vault-Tec guy melted in my arms. "Oh, God, please don't hurt me! There are rumors of China preparing nuclear war! We're just finalizing our paperwork in case the worst comes to fruition!" Yeah… my Charisma is a natural 20 at all times. My muscles demand respect.

I nodded. "Ok, I believe you. So, what do I need to fill out?"

I gently set him back down and he handed me the paperwork. It had the basics: name, my S.P.E.C.I.A.L., my favorite color, favorite band, favorite Disney movie (Disney owns Vault-Tec, and that's why we have talents labeled as 'special') and a new hologame based on the Disney movie: Yesterdayland.

I filled out the information, handing it back to him. He smirked over my choices. "Yeah… 10 on Charisma. At least I believe the 10 in Endurance." He nodded to me. "I see you rated your wife quite highly. Perfect 10 in Agility, Charisma, and Intelligence. "

"You should meet her some time." I replied back. "She earned those points."

The Vault-Tec guy nodded to me, stepping away from the door. "Have a nice day, and remember… We are prepared… for the future."

He rushed off to the next house, probably trying to sell them the same stuff he just gave to me. Oh well, it was nice to know that my family was protected now if the worst was to come.

"Sir… sir…" Codsworth said as he floated into the room. "Sir, it would seem Shaun is not impressed with my cold metallic exterior, so I was wondering if you would comfort the boy with your cold hard-as-steel arms." I'm so glad I programmed that into Codsworth's vocabulary. Sure, I didn't really think my arms were as strong as steel, but it could be said that I had… Adamantium plating on my limbs. That was my nickname in the army anyway, Adamantium Guy.

I looked back at the floating orb of a robot. It was unsettling how he had three eyes and three limbs. One of which was a saw blade… another was a flamethrower… and the last one was a giant clamp. Who designed these for child care? How is a sawblade a good idea for a family robot?

I shook the thought from my head. "I'll go see him."

Codsworth tipped his eyes in what looked like a bow. "Thank you, sir. I would ask mum to do it, but she's already tried everything she could imagine to calm the little tike down. Normally, she is very capable, but today… she seems off, sir. Any reason why that might be?"

She and me both. I was not feeling like myself today. I couldn't figure out what was going on, but I knew that something was wrong. Of course something was wrong. Two trained soldiers from two different armies living under one roof. Either army could decide we could be targets and send someone to kill us. Nora and I agreed on one little fact: no matter whose army showed up at our doorstep, the two of us were a team for now on. We would take them all on if it meant protecting each other and our children. And Codsworth, him too. He's a major part of this family now. I may have tried to assemble him and then tossed the pieces over to Nora to assemble, but I tried at least! Nora always had a bit of a thing for technology. Part of her intelligence background or something like that. China knows how to produce agents; I'll give them that much.

I shook my thoughts out of my head as I found myself standing in Shaun's room. Nora was bending over the crib's railing, looking the kid in the eye. She was holding one of those teething rings, trying to get him to calm down. Poor lad was teething, and he was so cranky because of it. "Hey, Shaun…." I cooed as I walked into the room.

Nora glanced back at me, smiling a bit of a relief. "Nate! Finally!"

I nodded as I walked into the room. "Yup. I'm here to save the day."

Nora looked so out of sorts. I wondered how I looked to her. Our baby has taken so much out of us these past four months that two highly trained soldiers, and possible assassins, are constantly put out of commission just by one little baby. As I walked into the room, I gave Nora a hug. "Babe… call the day off. Get some sleep."

She responded by punching me in the stomach. "You ever suggest that to me again, and I'll possibly kill you, maybe." I grabbed her arm, pinning her hand on me. We locked eyes for a few seconds, and we closed in on each other. I saw that glint in her eyes that meant the two of us were about to go wild on each other. We had hidden firearms all around the house, and all it took was one bullet to set both of us off. Soon enough, this household might turn into a warzone. Don't worry, they're paintball guns, Nerf guns, and water guns. Live ammo guns in the middle of a gated suburban town? Ha… we only had ten of those. And one missile launcher… that was Nora's.

"Hey, Nora… do you remember our last name?" I was having such a hard time remembering it. Remembering anything, anyway.

She paused. "Um… Smith?"

I shook my head. "No… I don't think it's Smith. The Smiths do live next door though. And we watched _The Smiths: 50th Year Anniversary Remake_ last night, but I don't think that's my last name."

We paused, still locked in each other's arms, still seconds away from going full out on each other in the middle of our son's room when we heard Shaun break into a loud cry. That dried up any tension between us as Nora slumped in my arms. "Don't worry, baby, mommy's here." She turned around, walking back over to the crib.

I joined her by the crib. My little baby boy was swaddled in his favorite blanket, obviously needing of some attention. I reached down, tickling him with my free hand. "Hey, little buddy. How's my little soldier?"

Nora scoffed at the idea. "Your _little soldier_? Isn't that what you called your dick when I first met you?"

I tried my best to block the memory. "And what did it produce? … My new little soldier. You ruined my last one."

She held a laugh as she looked away. "Don't worry, honey. I'm sure it will grow back one day." She laughed as she turned around. "Well, I'm going to get something to eat, and head on to work. Have fun with the boy today. You work tomorrow, right?"

What _did_ I do for a job? I believe I was a cop… isn't that how I know Nick? I think it was. This memory loss was really affecting me today. It sucks that I have to deal with this sometimes. And it's only minor stuff half the time. Why is so much of it being forgotten? I had to shake the thought away as I reached down to pick up my son. "Well, it's just you and me today, Shaun. Want to go to the park and play on that baby swing?"

He responded with a light coo. He always calmed down in my arms. I held him up to look him in the eye. He glanced right back at me, smiling dopily as he cooed. "Let's go see mommy."

"Sir… sir!" Codsworth screamed through the doorway. "The Misses needs you in the living room."

I nodded. "Right away, Codsworth."

I walked to the living room with Shaun in my arms. Nora was already standing by the door, her mouth nearly dropped to the floor. On the television was a news reporter. "Yes… flashes, we're reporting flashes. The Kent State Flashes have won for the tenth year in the row… wait… I'm told we've experiencing more than just Flash Fever… there are literal flashes being seen across the Northwest. Reports of explosions. The US has just confirmed that China has launched nuclear bombs."

The building silence outside was quickly replaced by loud warning sirens. Those sirens were our signal that something dangerous was about to happen. I glanced over at Nora. She looked quite sure of what our next action was. "Nate… Vault 111?"

I nodded. "Yeah."

"I'll grab our emergency bag!" She tore off towards our room. I looked around for something I could take. Then I realized I was carrying little Shaun. I don't know why we named him Shaun. My name was Nate… Nora adopted the Americanized name of well… Nora. She has a Chinese name, but I can't pronounce it for the life of me. Let alone spell it. Now, if she was Japanese, I'd be able to pronounce and spell it flawlessly, but alas… she's Chinese. My point being… both of our names begin with 'N'. So… why Shaun? Why not Nelson, Nick, Nathan… or something else?

I looked over at Codsworth. "Codsworth!"

The weird robot looked over at me with his three round eyes. "Sir? Would you like me to stay here and tend the house while you are away?"

What a stupid request. "No! You're family. You're coming with us!"

He floated away. "I'm afraid I need to do some yardwork. You'll have to go to the park without me. Good day, sir."

Did Codsworth even understand what was going on? The world is about to come to an end… and he's planning on doing yardwork? "Codsworth…" I started to follow him, but Nora was running back into the room, carrying our emergency bags, as well as Shaun's diaper bag.

"Ok, we're all set." She said.

"Did you remember our 10 mm?" I asked her.

"As well as our silencers, our extra clip of mags, and tampons." Well, I'm glad she remembered those. Last thing I need to deal with as an insecure man. "Let's go."

I rushed to the door, opening it for Nora. She nodded her thanks as she took off in a sprint down the road. I rushed behind her with Shaun in my hands. The emergency sirens were blaring as loudly annoying as possible. Neighbors I know, but knew almost nothing about currently, were all standing around. Some were crying, hugging their loved ones goodbye. Others were running for any safe place they could. I saw one neighbor smashing the windows of another neighbor he hated. All around us national guardsmen were doing what they could to get the civilians to gather around in a calm and collected manner.

Nora ran up the dirt path, and I followed right behind her. Soldiers waved us down, pointing down the dirt road. "All Vault participants up this lovely, scenic road to the vault! Be sure to keep your valuables close at all times!" Just as he said that, I saw the Smiths, arguing over a dropped piece of luggage. John Smith wanted to repack their valuables, Jane Smith wanted to abandon it and run for the vault. I'm agreeing with her by the way.

"Honey, keep up." Said the Chinese trained assassin. She sprinted with all the deadly glory of what she was up the dirt path. I had to admit… the fall time colors of these trees was beautiful. I wish I could slow down and enjoy this scenery while it was still here. I looked down as I jogged across a bridge with a beautiful little creak flowing underneath.

"Wow… this is really nice." I screamed to Nora as I tried to keep up with her.

"Yeah, I kind of wish we weren't running for our lives right now. It would this a lot more memorable." She said over her shoulder.

I finally caught up to her by a crowded fence. "Sir… you're not on the list." A soldier was patiently reporting to a ginger in a trench coat.

"But… I _am_ Vault-Tec." The guy from earlier said.

"Sir…" A soldier wearing power armor started whirring his chaingun, as if he planned on letting it loose on the crowd of civilians. It scared the Vault-Tec guy to no end as he tripped on his coat, turning to run away.

"I'm reporting this!" He screamed as he ran past me.

"Good luck!" The soldier replied. "If you live long enough!"

I jogged up ahead of the massing crowd. "Let us in… we're on the list." Yeah... the list. The oh so important... list.

He looked down at the list that consisted of just genders and ages. "Adult male… adult female… small asshole baby demon child. Yup, you three fit the detailed description given to me." He waved us through. "Follow the path up." As we ran past, I heard him do the same with the Smiths. "John H. Smith, born February 6th, 2046. Lived in Concord, Massachusetts. Went to school at Concord International College of Business, graduated top of your class; grade point average of 3.12, graduated with honors. Discovered cure to chicken pox. Enjoys the color yellow, favorite band: Skillet… likes My Little Pony. Yup… all seems in order. Follow behind adult male and adult female."

Ok… that was oddly specific… why didn't he do that for me?

I jogged beside Nora as we raced up the dirt path. One very enthusiastic guard noticed us above anyone else and waved to us. "This way! Follow me!" He screamed as he ran ahead of us. "Up this road! Stand on that elevator like everyone else! Do it! Just… do it!" He shoved us ahead. Nora and I jogged up to the platform, the Smiths taking up right beside us.

"Oh no… I think I forgot to turn off the oven." Jane Smith said. She started to leave. "I need to turn it off."

John hugged her close to him. "Oh no… you're not leaving now."

There was a bright flash off in the distance followed by a massive mushroom cloud, the very ground shaking heavily underneath the impact of a nuclear bomb going off. Way bigger than my thumb. Crap…

"That's it! Lower it down!" One of the soldiers screamed. There was a slight quake underneath us as the platform started to pull underground. As it slowly clambered down, there was a massive wave of radioactive debris rolling towards us.

I hugged Nora close to me. "Hold me." If I was going to die, I was going to die embracing the one person on this green Earth that I loved above anything or anyone else.

She nudged me off her, smiling fanatically at the rolling nuclear debris. "Hold on… I'll never get to see this twice. I want to enjoy it. The destruction of America…"

Everyone glanced at us suspiciously. Nora seemed to catch her slip up because she looked around. "Um… go Cavs?"

Everyone nodded. "Seems American enough for me." John Smith said.

I grabbed Nora and Shaun pulling them down as the radioactive debris rolled over top of us. We had descended low enough that the radiation didn't seem to flow down to hit us or something like that. And now that the top of the bunker was closing, there was no way that we had become radiated by being nearly blasted by that radiation wave just now. Everyone up top was now a smoldering corpse or bones… and I felt sorry for them, but at least we're still alive.

And now… our new lives begin… in Vault 111.

* * *

 **Cearbhail:**

 _So, I'm completely sold on the Chronicles of the Commonwealth being one of the new stories I begin. My brain just won't shut up about it. I could include a small teaser right now... so...  
_

 _nah. Ok, fine. This is your gift._

 _..._

 _[Mama Murphy]_

 _"I can see it... it's dark... scary... hard..."_

 _"I swear to... whatever counts as a deity these days..." Preston said as he turned to face me. "If you say anything about what I think you're thinking of, I will slap you with my Minuteman."_

 _"It's coming..." My vision wasn't coming in very clear but I could clearly see it was a monster of a beast coming up from the ground to kill us. If only my mouth could work when I was receiving my visions. "It will take us from behind..." Really? That's all I can say. My vision shifted as I saw someone out there... protecting us. "Only one thing... wrapped in protection can save us..." Really? "From the ice box..."_

 _Preston sighed as he looked back at me. "Really? That's where you're going with this? A dick joke?" He shook his head. "And to think... I thought today was going to be easy. Just an easy trek through Concord up to Sanctuary... should be easy. But no... now we have to deal with raiders... and dick jokes?"_

 _"She's coming..." Was all I could say._

 _"Who's coming?"_

 _"A stranger... who will save us... she's coming as we speak..."_

 _..._

 _..._

 _[Nora] (Not during the same chapter, but later on in the story)_

 _So... this was a thing. An subway station... and a off-track subway car that read "All are Welcome!" And sitting on a bench was a long line of teddy bears, all with holes in their arms and legs, stuffing pocking out. And... I could see what looked like a bathtub sheet covering the entrance to the conductor's seat. I could see a small figure moving on the other side of the sheet, and seeing how this whole place was filled with dead raiders and ghouls... I'm guessing it's probably a ghoul. "Danse... stay back."_

 _"I won't make any promises." He replied. "If it's a ghoul, I'm blasting it."_

 _I nodded as I walked up to the sheet. I thought I could hear whispering but... surely that's a mistake. "Don't worry, Mr. Poof Poof... we'll fix you up right away. Nurse! Three CC's of My Little Pony band-aids, stat!" I heard what sounded like a kid with a scratchy throat say to itself._

 _I approached the sheet and pulled it back quickly, pointing my pistol at what looked like a miniature ghoul. The ghoul... it looked just like a little girl, maybe 12. Dressed in a typical floral dress that looked stained from years of radiation abuse. As soon as I pulled the sheet out, the ghoul turned to look at me with deep blue eyes, almost like my boy's. She had long auburn hair like a human but her skin was darker than it should have been, and cracked like a ghoul's. You could tell in one look that she wasn't full human, but she wasn't jumping on top of me trying to rip me apart either so... I'm guessing she's still human enough in her mind._

 _"Hi?" The girl asked as she looked at me and then at Danse. "Are you my daddy and mommy?"  
_

 _Danse looked at her for a full second before bringing up his rifle. "I'm killing it."_

 _..._

If feel like you're going to enjoy this, or if you need a recommendation before reading it, begin with the Chronicles of Lydia. Just read a few chapters to make up your mind. I don't promise perfection, far from it. And that's the beauty of it.


	2. Let him go let him go!

**Cearbhail:**

 _Well, I'd say the first chapter was a rousing success. People really seemed to enjoy it, so why fix what isn't broken? Just to let you all know, those previews, I wrote them like... four, five months ago? They were just what I was thinking of doing for the story at the time. And I'm happy to say, I've lived up to one of them. So... yay! Glad to see that I'm on track.  
_

 _Enjoy ^^ ..._

* * *

[Nora] Year 2077

I couldn't believe we actually survived that. That cloud of destruction was rolling right over top of us, with little to no chance of not being hit by it. And yet… as I walked through radiation detectors, the surely highly qualified people of Vault-Tec seemed to pick up not one trace of the stuff. Vault 111, it sure seemed pretty impressive. As soon as we walked through the main door, we had a full staff of people swarming over us, checking us for any radiation before we even stepped over to the radiation detector. They made us strip our old clothes behind thin sheeted changing rooms into our new vault suits, and then they began making us sit through orientation. This was pretty much how it went.

We were ushered into a small room with rows upon rows of chairs set up classroom style (American classroom style). In the room was one man, the director no doubt. I sat down with my husband and my beautiful baby Shaun in the back row, who was very quiet for once in his life, as the rest of the vault dwellers filed into the room. The director cleared his throat before beginning. "I am the Overseer of Vault 111. That title is just a fancy way of saying: I maintain the staff, your living situation, and of course… everything in the vault. Have any problems, you tell it to me. First off, does anyone have any questions before we begin orientation?"

I didn't dare raise my hand. I could tell by the armed staff near the exit of the room that we were now in some kind of internment camp. I couldn't risk letting Nate know right now. His muscles would only give us away. This was time for me… the sneaky assassin, to do my job. Jane Smith, village busybody, and potential recruit for my team of badass women spies of Sanctuary Hills, raised her hand. "How long will we be down here?"

The director laughed. "I promise you dearie… it will only feel like a few seconds. Before you know it, you'll be outside, completely marveled at how things have changed… possibly for the better."

She raised her hand again. "Is it true that aliens exist?"

He shrugged at that. "I couldn't say. But I think we'll find out later." After that, no one really had any questions, none that seemed important anyway. I think everyone was following my lead, and just waiting to see what would happen to us. There were just as many guards as there were us unarmed civilians… only I think Nate and I could easily take them. It only made sense. We're both highly trained killers. I was already thinking of several ways of taking out the guard blocking the door. I purposefully sat directly in front of him so I could do the same trick I did on Nate in Montreal. The one where I flip out of my chair, squeeze his throat in my thighs, and then snap his neck as I land on top of him. I have our emergency bag. I know we have at least three loaded pistols and one collapsible rifle. That I fashioned out of my old AK-47.

My attention was momentarily brought back to the director, overseer, whatever he calls himself. "Welcome to Vault 111. I am the Overseer, and before we begin... I am contacted by Disney, our sponsor, to give you your free Disney HVT, (holo-video-tape)." A few guards began to pass out holotapes to us. When I got mine, I looked down, seeing the picture of a really, really old remake from what people called a DVD. Pfft, what a stupid archaic thing that was. The video was called ' _Frozen, the 50th Year Remastered Holographic Standard Edition_ '. Frozen, huh? Why that video instead of perhaps _Lion King_ or something that iconic?

"Of course, since Disney owns Lucas Films, we're also contracted to give you _Star Wars, Episode V, The Empire Strikes Back._ You'll enjoy the lovely iconic scene of Han Solo standing boldly to Darth Vader right before he is frozen in carbonite. And of course, I would like you all to note that your vault suits are outfitted with a special lining that protects the skin from hypothermic shock. It will, in theory, protect your body from dying on you while you're frozen." That… that was an odd thing to tell us.

I decided to raise my hand. "Are you saying… we're going to be freezing?"

The director shook his head madly. "Oh, of course not, dearie. We here at Vault-Tec are committed to be completely honest, and never ever, ever lie to our experimental pigs… I mean… residents." Shit… I'm back in China, aren't I.

The director continued on with the rest of his speech. "And now, before we step you all into your advanced, advanced, screening pods, which will scan your body for potential hazards, we use a special liquid nitrogen to cool your muscles enough to where we can detect minor abrasions and the like within your body." Liquid nitrogen? Doesn't that like… freeze stuff? I'm pretty sure that freezes stuff.

I looked over at Nate. He seemed confused…as usual. I decided to nudge him on the shoulder. "Honey…" I whispered to him.

I received a small tap on my other shoulder. The guard standing at the doorway was tapping me. "Ma'am, please hold the chatter until after your screening."

Oh, so we're playing _that_ _game_ , are we? I reached for my emergency bag, opening it up enough that I could stick my hand inside. I felt around for any weapon I could find… only… I couldn't find any. They were all gone! I opened my bag enough that I could actually see inside it. I only found my tampons, a few pairs of clothes, and a bag of potato crisps. No weapons. Dammit! I knew I forgot to pack something! They must still be at home, lying under the bed… or what remained of it.

I face-palmed. I could try to rush the guard, but I doubt I'd make it past the other sixteen of them standing on the other side of the door. This guard was conveniently the only one without a pistol. He did have a stun baton though. I can work with that.

I was preparing myself to grab his thumb, snap it, and flip over the chair, when I heard the director clap his hands. "And now that that's over, let us adjourn to the carbonite chambers… I mean… medical scanners. Yeah…"

Jane Smith nodded. "Seems legit." Stupid American.

Everyone stood up quickly and they all made their way behind the director as we walked over to the scanners. The walk was pretty slow, and this vault suit was rubbing me in all sorts of uncomfortable ways. It pinched everywhere. If it were any tighter, I'd call it spy under-armor.

I was strategically positioned away from any guard in the station. They had us in a perfect squared formation as they marched us down the cramped hallway. With four guards in front, six more in the rear, and my baby in the same hallway as the rest of us, I was forced to sigh and bear this. I couldn't even warn my husband. One little slip up and everyone could die. But, if I got a chance to reach a pistol, I might have a chance of taking down the guards in the front, tell everyone to take cover. I could then plug the other guards, force the director to test out the scanner personally, and see if it works out. If not… then… well… so much for him.

Nate, just behind me, was beaming with excitement. "Just imagine… we're vault people now. Just like in that show Unbreakable. Except we won't be ostracized like the mole women were."

I turned to look back at him. "Why do we keep referencing stuff that happened more than 60 years ago?" It's been bothering me. _Frozen, Lion King, Unbreakable_. All of those things. Why nothing modern, like _Little Rocky the 3rd 7, Revenge of the Russian Underdog._ Or something like that?

He shrugged. "I have no idea, honey."

Our line was finally leading us to a small line of cylindrical tubes. They looked pressurized. I'm not going into one of those. I'm claustrophobic. Even looking at the giant cambers, I could see the tubes of nitrogen linked to the chambers. On the side of the chamber door, I could easily read _Vault-Tec Freezing Pods_.

I pointed to the printing. "You mind explaining this?"

The director looked at the printed label. He rubbed his chin. "Oops, it would seem they printed the wrong label onto our… medical scanners." He shrugged as he led us to our pods.

Jane shrugged at the suggestion. "I'll believe it."

As we ended the long walk to our pods, I saw the director give me a knowing look. He was standing right next to my baby boy, close enough to grab him. He nodded to me knowingly, pointing to my pod. "If you would just… step inside for a second so that we may scan your body… this will go a lot faster." The guards lining up all around me… well… I guess I don't have a choice.

I sighed as I entered my chamber. Before I walked inside, I was sure to hug Nate and Shaun. "It's a trap." I whispered to Nate as I hugged him close.

"I know." He whispered back. "See you on the other side, maybe."

We nodded to each other as we entered our pods. Right as soon as I got settled into my spot, the door began to slide down, locking me inside. The director paused in front of my door, smiling at me. "Let it go… let it go…" He sang to me as the liquid nitrogen began to spray all around me. I took one last glance at Nate, who was stuck in the same position I was. We both knew there was no coming back from this. We lost. I felt colder and colder… I better wake up with cool ice powers, or so help me…

…

[Nora] Year 2227

Or so help me… I will be very angry.

"It's this one… at the end of the hall." I heard a muffled voice call from somewhere away from my pod.

I felt so cold, so very cold. And weak. Like I hadn't exercised, or eaten, for a few hundred years. Through my glass I could see Nate inside his capsule. He was shivering, still carrying Shaun with him. We… we survived? How? There is no scientific proof that freezing the body will preserve the soul. Even though frogs do it… and most lizards do it. And several variants of other animals and insects can do it too. That is not enough proof that freezing humans would suspend them indefinitely while stored on ice. And yet… here we were. Alive and well. It couldn't have been more than a few seconds. But, who's to know?

I watched as some overly dressed assassin walked over to Nate's door. One heavily dressed person in a contamination suit nodded to Nate's door. "It's this one." She said.

The assassin nodded. "Ok then. Pop it open."

The person in the contamination suit began to punch in something on a keyboard on the freezing chamber. The door slid up, and I could see Nate still trying to get his bearings. I could barely move my body around, and I'm the more flexible one.

A third person, dressed in the same contamination suit, walked over to the open chamber. "Sir, give me the baby." He said as he reached for Shaun.

Nate burst into butt-kick mode. He screamed, kicking his legs out, snapping the first person in the chest. Of course, the obviously trained assassin was ready. He reached in for his pistol, but he didn't know what I knew. My husband… while he might be a complete doofus, he is also a highly trained warrior. True… an American warrior, like the ones I left behind me on the battlefield until they designed those power armors, but he's my American warrior. And I only choose the best.

As the assassin brought up his amazing looking pistol, Nate rolled right under his arm, shoving an elbow right into the guy's ribcage. I expected to hear a scream of pain from the man, but I only heard a scream of pain from Nate. He rammed into the guy and then bounced off him like he met a brick wall. Nate ended up on the floor, the assassin laughing. "Heh, these cybernetics were well worth the price I paid for them." He reached down, clasping Nate around his neck. With the other hand, he punched Nate in the head, hard enough to black him out. I saw Nate's arms slack and Shaun fell from his lifeless arms.

One of the suited people grabbed Shaun as Nate's hands relaxed. "Package is secure." The suited person began to walk away from where I could see him.

"Good." The assassin said as he brought a pistol to Nate's head. I screamed, pounding my numb hands on the ice box screen. The assassin saw me banging madly on the door. He only smirked, lowering his gun, sliding it back into his holster. He carried Nate back to his container, putting him back into his spot, and closing the door behind him. "We have our backups properly stored away."

The man walked over to me, smiling as he glared at me. He winked as he said, "Do it." I felt that same nitrogen spraying down around me, and I was already feeling myself freeze. Oh, come on! Not again! This cannot be logically possible to do!

…

[Preston Garvey] Year 2287

I'm so damn tired. I'm tired of running, I'm tired of shooting… hell, I'm tired of living. Won't matter in a few minutes. The only thing keeping us alive at the moment is our barricaded door. Raiders were all over the place, trying their best to break through our defenses, or what remains of them. An entire town… an entire town for us to pick our last stand, and we pick a museum. We didn't really have much choice, mind you. I was leading a small pocket of Minutemen and civilians through Concord, hopefully to a safe place for us to lie low for a while. Maybe start up a new home. The people I'm sworn to protect lost theirs, a swampy town by the name Quincy. I was called in with what remained of the Minutemen to deal with a potential threat, which turned out to be the Gunners.

Long story short, we were defeated. Our colonel, a good fellow by the name Hollis, had his last stand with a few Minutemen. He gave us the time we needed to leave with what remained of the civilians. Ever since then, we've tried our best to find a place to lie down and lick our wounds. Jamaica Plain didn't work out. One of our betrayed Minutemen, Clint, found us. He was responsible for the Quincy Massacre; the battle we'd just run away from. He followed us to Jamaica Plain. He killed more of us. Three more Minutemen bought us time as we ran even farther away. Clint didn't follow.

We stopped in Lexington. We were welcomed by ghouls. We lost even more men, and civilians. We started with 20, and by the time we reached this town… Concord… we were only ten. And now… it's just five. And I'm the last Minuteman. And it's my duty to do what I can to save these people. I took an oath.

And that barricaded was already beginning to give. I looked back at Sturges, probably the only person I could trust to do anything at the moment. "Sturges. Get everyone upstairs. I'll try to hold them off."

He nodded. "Yes, sir."

I watched as Sturges walked over to help up Mama Murphy, the only thing that's kept us ahead of the loop since we've left Quincy. She's probably predicted more accounts of ambushes than I have. And every time she's told us about an ambush, we've had just enough time to set up for it. Never escape before it arrives, but just enough time to get ourselves prepped. She was also a junkie. She had a rare gift we called the Sight, but it's only developed through… taking a lot of chems. She's got a problem, and unfortunately, that problem has saved our lives more times than I care to admit.

"I can see it…" She whispered into the back spaces of her fractured mind.

She could see it? See what? Our death? And how could she see it? I glanced down at the floor to see a needle casing. She took a hit of psycho. Oh… I told her so many times not to do chems! Oh well, no stopping it now. Might as well see what our future has in store for us. "What is it, Mama Murphy?"

She gazed off into nothing. "I can see it… it's dark… scary… hard…"

What… the fuck? "I swear… to whatever counts as a deity these days, if you say anything about what I think you're thinking of… I will slap you with my minuteman."

"It's coming…" She whispered out. Oh, god… she really is thinking it, isn't she? "It will take us all from behind…" OH my god… she better shut up before people start getting the wrong idea about me. Marcy Long was already eye-balling me with suspicion as she started leaving the room with her husband in tow. "Only one thing… wrapped in protection can save us… from the ice box…"

I couldn't stand this anymore. I was calling her bluff. "Really? That's where you're going with this? A dick joke?" I couldn't take it anymore. We were minutes away from dying… and the last thing I hear from our psychic… was a dick joke. Great, just fucking great. "And to think, I thought today was going to be easy. Just an easy trek through Concord up to Sanctuary. Should be easy… but is it? No… I have to deal with raiders… and now… dick jokes." I glared down at the blazed woman.

Murphy glared into my eyes, full of will and strength. "She's coming…" She? Not me? Huh… ok. I'll go with it.

"Who's coming?" I looked down at Murphy as her pupils began to return to normal. She must be coming off her buzz already. That's what happens when you get used to those chems. They don't last as long, and you have to take twice as much just to get the same buzz. Her vision must already be wearing off.

"A stranger, who will save us. She's coming as we speak."

I was about to ask her more but I was interrupted by the door behind me exploding open. "Knock, knock!" A raider screamed as he stuck his head into the hole he blasted open with his shotgun.

I spun on my heel, bringing my laser musket up. It was cranked and ready to go. "Who's there?" I asked him as I pulled the trigger. The raider didn't have time to move. He was met with a face full of plasma… I think. Something red and deadly, I'll just say that. Shut up! It's not a dick joke, I swear.

The raider, now headless, fell from the doorway. Unfortunately, there was still a massive hole in the door. And I could see more raiders waiting on the other side of it. They all had their weapons pointing up at me. "Everyone, upstairs, now!" I screamed as I began cranking my charging device. I couldn't fire again until it was cranked up high enough to emit a deadly arch of energy. As I started diving for cover, I heard rounds fly all around me, crashing into the wooden floor and walls. A round barely skimmed my face, leaving me with a numbed pain in my cheek. Another round blasted my hat off my head. Because of that, I ducked my head even further down as rounds crashed all around me.

"When you're dead, we'll be taking your women. Heh, heh, heh." Something dark… scary… and hard. I think I just figured it out.

"Over my dead body!" I screamed as I finished cranking my gun up.

"That's what I just said! Glad you agree!" The raider's leader said from the other side of the door. Right as I finished cranking my wind-up weapon, the barricaded door exploded, wooden shrapnel flying all around me. I just had time to scramble myself up right as the first wave of bandits raced into the museum. I turned and ran for it. Bullets raced down all around me. I thought of all my friends that I served with. They all died protecting this family. So many of us died… and now… I'm the last one. The only one that can do something to help. But, I can't do that if I'm dead. Mama Murphy said someone would save us. A stranger. She's been right so far. I just have to hold out long enough to meet them.

…

[Nora] Year 2287

And yet… it just kept seeming to happen!

I don't know what was happening but… I'm not frozen anymore. My body's still pretty stiff, and there are blaring red lights going off, as well as an annoying alarm. How long? How long was I out? It didn't matter. I had to go find Shaun… I had to go save him. If he was even still alive.

I pushed against the door, and this time… it actually opened up. The door slid open, and I was sure to push myself out of the container before I ended up freezing myself for who knows how long… I had a mission now. I had to go save my baby… and possibly save the world while doing it… and building as many new towns or settlements as possible… and perhaps become a hoarder. Something!

As I pushed myself out of the pod, I fell pretty quickly to the floor. My legs and arms didn't help balance me as I pushed off, so I ended up on the floor just the same. I shook it off as my head started to spin. My lungs felt heavy, and it felt like there was a lot of condensation inside them. Like the very air cooled into water while inside me. It only made sense… I was frozen for a good… however long.

As soon as I got my arms and legs to function, I started to push myself back up. Nate's chamber was right there, right in front of me. I pulled on his release lever, which made the door slide up like mine did. The partially frozen Nate started breathing, rubbing his possible broken nose with his already frozen arm. "Oh great merciful God… his left hook was like taking a bat to the face." He opened his eyes, looking around. "Um… hello? I can't see anything!"

I struggled to say anything, but all I could think of was _The Return of the Jedi_ , another classic I somehow know about. It's been a tough day. "You have temporary blindness from the freezing process. It will return later." My voice came out croaky, the defrost was tough on my throat.

"Who's that?" Nate called, twirling his head around. "Who are you?"

I managed to push myself up, falling right into his… very cold chest. "Someone who loves you… very much."

"Leia…" He said, nodding.

"No… Nora." Who the fuck is… oh… right. Star Wars.

Nate smiled as much as he could. "Right, Nora. Did you happen to see what just happened to Shaun? I was blind the whole time. Are you blind too? Because… I was totally owning this one guy."

"I saw the whole thing."

He paused as he tried to think his way out of it. "Did I mention I was blind the whole time?"

I sighed as I helped lower Nate out of the freezing chamber before we somehow ended up inside it again. "Where is everyone?" He asked as he blindly looked around the room. "I don't hear anyone but us."

I nodded, looking around. The blaring lights were a dead giveaway that something wasn't right. "Yeah… this is bad. No Vault-Tec to try to kill us for escaping." And no one else was exiting their pods like I did. I looked back over at Nate. "Eyesight getting any better?"

"Blurry, but yeah… it's coming back." He reported.

"Good. You stay here, and when you're able, start releasing everyone else. I'm going ahead, see if I can find out what's going on." I let him go as I started heading on forward. My limbs were plenty warm now, for some reason. You'd think my internal body heat would not just reboot after being frozen alive… but… what do I know? I'm no scientist, just a well-trained intelligence assassin from China. And right now, this intelligence assassin is looking for any signs of what happened to her baby.

I left Nate sitting on the floor as I started sneaking around the hallway towards the entrance. The lights were all offline, all but a few blaring warning lights. I could see more and more rooms of freezing pods, all of which I would open up once I found out where the guards were.

As I walked around the vault, I started seeing a bit of a trend… there were no guards. No Vault-Tec. In fact, the only thing I did find was… a giant fucking cockroach sitting on a window. A giant… fucking… cockroach. As soon as I saw that giant-ass motherfucker… I turned myself around, and walked myself right back to where Nate was, screaming, "Nope, nope, fucking nope!" Giving the whole vault two middle fingers as I did so.

…

[Preston]

"Mama Murphy, are you sure?" I pressed a desk up against the last door between us and the raiders coming to kill us. I could feel the shotgun blasts coming through the doorway now. The desk was metallic, and it was absorbing most of the hit for the door. I just hope it keeps doing that.

Mama Murphy nodded. "Yes… she's coming… but… there seems to be a slight problem. A fear of bugs…"

A fear of bugs? The Commonwealth is nothing but giant-ass bugs. Dammit. Just what we need.

…

[Nora]

I found Nate already on his feet and stretching out as soon as I walked right back into the freezing room. He nodded at me. "I'm guessing that's you?"

I nodded. "It's me." My voice was more or less back to normal.

It made him smile to hear my voice. "Good to hear you. What's the situation?"

"Cockroaches… the size of dogs." I couldn't stop my voice from cracking.

That made him smile. "You couldn't even kill the one we found in the kitchen that one day. I found you standing on top of the roof, telling me to blow up the house because it was infested."

"And we're blowing up the vault once we're outside it." I said to him. "Now, go kill that demon spawn for me. I'll release everyone from their pods."

Nate nodded. "I'll be right back." He laughed as he walked out of the room. "I think you're just over-exaggerating."

I rolled my eyes as I started going up to everyone's pods, pulling the levers. One by one the pods all slid open, and people started falling out one by one, each one coughing and complaining about their blind eyes. I just stood there, giving one the same speech about how they just needed to sit for a few seconds while their bodies caught up with them. It seemed like everyone was still alive. Good news on that front. I'd hate to think that after all this… I was the _sole_ survivor or some stupid shit like that.

Right after I got out of the third and final room after releasing everyone that was frozen in the pods, Nate returned back to me, his vault suit torn and covered in what I assume was beetle juice. He was breathing hard. "That… you weren't kidding. They were _huge_! I fought one that was the size of a horse!"

I nodded. "Yeah. And I'm glad it wasn't me." That's when I noticed he had a pistol holster and a 10 mm sitting in it. "Um…" He was also wearing a Pip Boy, which was a boxy computer you could wear on your arm. It was… trendy, for some reason. I just preferred my smart phone.

Nate smiled as he handed me a 10 mm pistol. "I found one for you too. Just in case you run into any more of those… whatever they were." He looked over my shoulder, smiling. "I see everyone is ok."

I nodded, looking back as the Smiths and everyone were slowly getting used to their bodies again. "Yup. Everyone's alive. Not just us… or me."

Nate nodded. "Ok, good. Well, I've already opened the vault door. All that's left is for all of us to get on the platform and head on up."

Good, I couldn't wait to be out of here. "What happened to Vault-Tec?"

Nate shrugged. "From what I gathered, people got bored of living down here, supplies ran low, and there was a revolt. The overseer died, and everyone fled the vault. They timed us for release… which seemed to be today, I guess."

Well, that's good. No Vault-Tec meant no problems for us once we walk out of here. But… I saw the nuclear bombs blow everything up. Surely… there couldn't be a world for us to return to… could there?

* * *

 **Cearbhail:**

Who else picked up each Frozen reference I put into this chapter? Or at least getting frozen. I wanted to do more.. so much more. And I planned on more, but I forgot half the jokes I wanted to do with getting frozen. And yes, all the vault dwellers survived. And...

I just want to say this. I've been playing a lot of mods on the Xbox One... and... I have decided to include the mods into this story. You'll be able to figure them out as they pop up. The aliens for one. Which actually should start up not to long from now. Right around the time Nora meets Danse. And don't worry. I know some people are worried about Nora and Nate splitting up. Let's just say... it won't be for long, and it's mostly so that they can focus on other tasks. It's just that while they're separated they seem to... develop these thoughts about the people they're spending time around. Oh well, enjoy.


	3. A whole new world

**Cearbhail:**

 _And now... I introduce some of the new vault members. I am known for my references so... be ready for those to appear at any time. Like now.  
_

 _Enjoy ^^ ..._

* * *

[Nora]

 _Dear diary,_

 _…_

Nate quickly pushed me away from his wrist. "Hey… stop messing with my Pip Boy."

I looked back at him, giving him my sternest look. "Honey… I'm trying to preserve history here."

He only rolled his eyes as he stuck out his wrist for me. I glanced down at his bulky wrist-bound computer, his… Pip Boy. He had a useless running health diagnostic up and running, which I quickly backed out of, bringing up a word document. Time to start my own fanfiction… I mean… diary entry. Yeah…

 _Like I saw saying… dear diary,_

 _My name is Nora Brannon. Well… my American name is Nora Brannon. My real name is Jiao Xiaolian. Well, now I guess it's Brannon Xiaolian. Last we checked it was October 23rd, 2077. According to the Pip Boy, today is October 23rd, 2287. And today is Wednesday. Awesome. It's hump day! Great jingzu, I'm sounding just like these idiots._

 _Anyway, so… we're the survivors of the Sino-American War, which I guess ended on October 23rd, 2077. I'm not entirely sure. It might have dragged on longer, but it's hard to do that when the entire world was more than likely blown to Tian and back. Anyway, we survived by going into our friendly neighborhood vault, Vault 111. Which was more like a giant freezer that kept us locked up like frozen dinners until it was safe for us all to leave. And… during that time, I guess the keepers of the vault became bored and left without us. Or they died. One of the two._

 _Anyway, some guy came into our vault and unfroze all of us. He released Nate only so that he could steal our son. And I watched as Nate jumped out of his sleeping pod, breathing hot and heavily as he charged our assailant. The assailant was shirtless, all buff and whatnot. And Nate was dripping in virgin oil. The two of them clashed into each other's arms, each of them fighting over our baby boy, Shaun._

 _"No… you can't take him like this!" My brave Nate screamed, his voice strained by his effort to subdue the assailant in front of us._

 _"I'm not here for the boy; I'm here for you!" The assailant screamed, running his hands into my hubby's magnificent six pack. "I wonder if you're worth taking…" He started sliding his hands down Nate's loosely buckled pants… drawing a satisfied groan from…_

 _…_

"Ok, that's enough!" Nate ripped his hand away from me. His face was flushed red as he backed away. "You're not going to put _that_ in our history books." He looked down to read it again. "That's _not_ even how it happened! I swear… _that_ did not happen!" He said to the other remaining vault dwellers.

Of course, I said everything aloud as I wrote it down. It's the only way I can write things in English. English is hard enough, but I have to sound it out to write it. It's not like they had a character system built around their concept of words. No… they had to sound out every little one thing and then slam them together to form stupid repetitive sounding 'words' like 'they're, their, there'. Fucking hate this language. And so… everyone in the whole vault heard my diary entry. And of course, we're all packed onto the one and only platform that was slowly taking us up to the main world, or what remained of it. There were 17 of us total… and most of us were families. The Addams family, the Smiths, The Brannon family, The Aldrich family, Bill Russel, Kathleen Anderson, and Homer Brown. And one of Nate's old friends, Zhanna. That's about all of us.

As I glanced around the people assembled around us, I wondered if we were the last people on the entire planet still alive. Obvs not. The guy that rushed in here with wrapped up people that stole our baby were alive. There had to be other survivors.

I checked my pistol, ready to kill anyone that got in my way. That man stole my hard-earned baby boy. I suffered to bring that miracle into this world. I'm not letting some bastard keep him away from me. "We're getting our baby back."

"Ribs…" Nate nodded. "We're so getting our baby back ribs…"

Everyone groaned in hunger. We hadn't been fed in 200 years. We're all famished, but not famished enough to eat those dead dog-sized cockroaches Nate stomped to death.

I glanced up at the top of the vault exit. We were coming up on the last segment. We're just seconds away from finding out if we were all doing to die from radiation poisoning. I'm counting on 'no'. That one guy wore no suit and he had to get in here somehow. He most likely left the same way.

As the top of the top platform started to slide open, I felt the first breeze flow down to us. The air smelled… stale. That wasn't a good sign, but it _was_ October. The smell of dead trees and leaves would be abundant by now. The air felt cool, like it did just a day ago right before I was frozen on ice. Figures… it's late October. Winter is coming… and I just got out of a long term relationship with an ice box. Fuck me!

"Well, that feels great!" Morticia Addams screamed.

"Doesn't it, babe." Gomez wrapped his arms around her. "You can just smell the death and destruction!"

Yeah, you could smell it in the air. It was thick with the smell of iron, rust, rot. The sky was bright blue with a hue of yellow. Must be early sunrise. I looked back at Nate, taking his hand in mine as we slowly rode the elevator up to the surface.

As we exited the rising tunnel, I had to close my eyes as the rising sun glared into them. Everyone else did the same. 200 years of sleeping… our eyes were not ready for sunlight. Not yet. A cup of coffee would have gone a long way to helping that along.

A cool breeze brushed across me as our platform settled back into its spot. I risked opening my eyes to see what the world had become… and I was not ready. The ever lively place I was forced to move to was naught but ash and bone and rust. Discarded rusted military vehicles littered everywhere; abandoned cell phones still somehow running Pokemon Go showed that at the end of the world, people were still fighting over Valor over Mystic and Instinct. If only they watched where they were going, they might have survived the coming apocalypse. China was on Team Mystic. We won. Case closed.

I looked to the trees, hoping to see signs of life. Each tree was nothing but a blown down husk, broken down from the explosion that rocked us just last time we went to sleep. It was devastating to see just how much the world had changed.

Nate sighed, shaking his head. "I'm not getting my baby back ribs… am I?"

Gomez nodded appreciatively, wrapping his arms around his wife. "It sure is beautiful, isn't it babe?"

She nodded. "It's everything I dreamed it would be."

Bill Russel shook his head. "Well… what do we do now?"

John Smith stepped up in front of us all. "As we all know… most of us were veterans. I was a Captain. So… does anyone outrank me?"

I looked to Nate. "I was just a Sergeant." He said to me.

I sighed. "I was an agent. An assassin."

John looked at me. "We had those?"

I shook my head. "No, but… China did. I was a commando. An independent agent. I only took orders from my General."

John Smith nodded. "Ok, so you probably have a pretty good idea of what to do then. What should be our next move? We'll compare notes."

The first thing we needed was a place to set up a camp. We needed supplies, our bearings… we needed intelligence of what to expect in this new world. "We need sanctuary."

John nodded. "Well, we used to live in Sanctuary Hills, so… we'll travel down and see if it's still standing." He nodded to Nate and me. "I think we're the only combat soldiers. I think the three of us should go down and see if it's safe." He looked to everyone else. "And everyone should bunker down here until we return. Perhaps scrounge for whatever food we can find."

I shook my head. "You and Nate should go check out Sanctuary Hills. The two of you would probably do better as a small unit." I handed John my pistol. "I will scout ahead and see if I can find out what's going on around us."

Nate looked at me, taking my hand. "Honey… you sure?"

I nodded. "Of course I am. I'm the stealthiest… I'm smart. I'm fast. I'm not you! And that means, I should be the one to scout ahead."

He shrugged. "Ok, but where? Sanctuary Hills was pretty isolated."

"Not from Concord." I said. "I'll head down there, see if it's still standing. Make sure there are no zombies or giant roving monsters. Remember how you Americans sent those giant hulking mutants to kill us in Anchorage?"

Nate looked away. "It wasn't my idea."

I nodded. "I know that, dear. But… what if they survived the nuclear war? What if they repopulated…"

"They lost their reproductive organs when given the mutation virus." John said. When Nate and I looked to him, he shrugged. "I… I may have been the captain in a Chemical and Biological Warfare Division." He nodded to both of us. "I have a Masters in Chemical Engineering. If anything, I can safely say that the 'super mutants' have died off by now. They were never designed to live for long."

I looked back at Nate. "Be careful you two. I'll be down in Concord scouting for whatever I can find. When you're done getting everyone settled in Sanctuary… bunker down and wait for my return."

As I started to walk away, he grasped me by my arm. "And if you don't return?"

I gestured to his pistol. "Then… you better remember how to use that. Because if I don't return… whatever got me will be better than me. And if it's better than me…" I nudged to him.

"I'm going to need a lot of ammo." He finished my thought.

"And possibly a nuclear bomb." I kissed Nate, getting lost on his lips. We kissed like that for a few seconds, John and Jane kissing each other just as fiercely. We both broke apart at the same time.

"Go get them." Jane said John.

"Go get them." Nate said to me.

I looked down at my very obvious blue jumpsuit. Not going in this. I turned back to our suitcase. I packed my old agent uniform. Black and gray… with a traveling bag. Just what I like to wear. I reached back, pulling my hair into a thick ponytail as I started changing out of my vault suit for my agent wear. Nate and John were already heading down to Sanctuary Hills.

Once I got myself changed, I nodded to Jane. "Be safe."

She smirked, pulling out two knives, tossing one to me. And then pulled out two concealed pistols. "I'm coming with you." Her accent changed quickly into Russian. Oh… oh I see what's going on.

I stuck out my hand, taking her arm in mine. "Comrade."

"Fellow Commie." She replied with a chuckle. She nodded to me as she started leading the way to Concord. "Let's go see what we can learn about this new world."

…

[Nate]

When I planned on having a guys' night out with John 200 years ago, I did not expect it to be a night of shooting up flies with my old robot servant. "Sir…" Codsworth said as he floated behind us, slashing at the horde of flies rushing us from behind. There were thousands of them, each the size of my head, shooting God knows what at us through their butts. Had to be their crap.

"I got your six!" John said as he went into a combat roll, diving behind one of the discarded rusted out cars. Crap missiles slammed down all around him. He covered his head, taking proper cover behind the car. "Crap!" He shouted. "I'm pinned down!" He gestured to the rusted nail snagged on his vault suit.

I nodded. "I got you, best buddy!" I brought my pistol up. "Covering fire!" I started spraying my pistol at the flies, knocking three down before they even turned to fire at me.

John took that as his cue, jumping over the car, bringing up his own pistol. "Time to shoo fly!" He let loose, cutting down another six.

"Sir…" Codsworth said from behind me.

"Not now, Cods. We need to deal with these flies." I said to him. If Nora even saw one of these things flying around, she would probably burn down the whole town. I couldn't let her find out about these massive flies. Oh no… she was heading to Concord. And if it's like this… oh no…

…

[Nora]

"So then, he finds out I was a spy for Russia… and I found out he was a spy for America… and we'd been married for perhaps five years. And… boy did we have a tough time trying to kill each other." Jane said to me as we stalked through the brush towards Concord. We could both hear the massive gun fire from Sanctuary Hills behind us. What were they doing down there? I didn't hear return fire, just Nate and John screaming at each other about bugs… ugh… bugs. I hate bugs. I might just burn the town down when I get back there.

I looked back over to Jane… if that was her real name. "So, what do you see down there?" I turned my attention to the cute German Shepard with the dog tag that read _Dogmeat._ Huh… what an odd name for a dog. Oh well, we've already bonded. I'm keeping him. He's my little angel. I started fiercely rubbing his neck and head, making him pant with a playful whine.

Jane just happened to be carrying a scope meant for a sniper rifle with her. She was using it to scout out the town before we headed down to it. "I see plenty of… destroyed buildings, ruined cars…" She shook her head. "And… there is a giant sign welcoming veterans to the museum for the… _Super Special Awesome Veterans Special Meeting_ …" She looked back over to me, squinting. "No wonder why the army lost its edge when it started pandering to the recruits' feelings…"

I nodded. "I killed half of them just by misgendering them." I replied. "Speaking of which." I looked her up and down. "You're White Rose Natasha, aren't you?" I remember hearing about her in China. One of Russia's best infiltrators.

She scoffed. "Haven't heard that name in over 200 years." She looked over to me. "And you are Pink Lotus Xiaolian. I know you." She replied as she went back to her scope. We stayed quiet as she peered through her scope. "Ok… I see… I see…" She looked up. She went back to her scope. "Well, that can't be right."

I squinted even harder than I already did every second of every day, trying to see what was going on in the town. "What? You see what?"

"I see a black man… waving at us. He's with an old woman pointing in our direction. He seems to know we're here. And I think… hold on. … I see armed mercenaries, I think. They're rushing into the museum. I think the man needs our help." Natasha looked up at me. "Should we… go have a girls' night out?"

She stuck out one of the silenced pistols for me to take. I took it, slammed back the receiver, and fed a bullet into the chamber. "Let's go."

…

[Preston]

"Mama Murphy… I feel like an idiot. Can I stop waving in the middle of firefight now?" I did not know why she needed me to wave my hand out towards the old gas station. I'm sure she had a good reason when we had raiders trying to bash down the barricaded door keeping us from them.

I tensed as I heard someone slam against the door. "Ow, my palm…" He screamed.

"Let me try." There was another thud against the door. "God, my foot!"

Well, those nails I shoved into the door were paying off.

"My turn." There were several thuds.

"Oh my god… he's dead." The first raider said.

"He shouldn't have head-butted the door." The other raider said.

I only sighed as I looked back at Mama Murphy. "How are we losing to these idiots?"

"Numbers… mostly." She replied. "But… they're coming. They know we're in trouble. And now… they will free us from this darkness that threatens to take us from underneath." There she goes again with the black dick joke.

…

[Nate]

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. They were dropping in drones now. And it wasn't just flies now. Giant ant/centaur things were climbing out of the earth, carrying giant spears. Giant wasps were flying around, shooting missiles out of their stingers.

"Incoming!" John said, rushing to tackle me to the ground as the ground around us exploded into dirt. The wasps were flying overhead of us, blasting the ground with their exploding stingers.

"What the hell is going on here?" I said as I pushed John off me. The ant-centaurs were marching up to us, aiming their spears at us.

"I think we should fall back." John replied.

"Sir…" Codsworth said from behind me.

"Not now, Cods!" I yelled back. "We have to kill these bugs!"

"Sir…" He urged me.

I shook my head. "Not now!" I pushed myself up, charging for the first ant-centaur. As I got closer to him, I aimed my pistol at him, plugging him in the head. My bullet exploded his head, and I took the chance to grab his spear, spinning it to the next ant. I knocked his spear away before stabbing him in the head.

"Whoa… whoa!" One of the ant-centaurs said. "Dude… calm down!" He said, sticking up his four arms. "We come in peace." It spoke English. My brain literally shut down.

I looked from him to John. "What the hell is going on?"

He shrugged. "I don't know… I'm so confused right now."

Codsworth floated up to me. "Sir… I've been trying to tell you. They're friendly."

I groaned. "You couldn't have mentioned that before I killed their queen?"

"I tried, sir…"

I looked over at John. He looked relieved that we were done fighting the bugs. I know I was glad to be done too. I just hope Nora was doing well.

…

[Nora]

"Run! They're maniacs!" The mercenaries screamed, running away from Natasha and I as we chased them into the town. We were met by a few people as we came into the town. They wanted to rob us, rape us, and then kill us. Natasha and I responded by taking their weapons, shooting off their dicks, and then shooting them in their knees, leaving them crippled to fend off the ant-centaur thingies that wanted nothing more than to eat them. It's not every day that you run into giant ant/cockroach centaur things that can speak in the oh-so common language of English. I'm guessing they only speak English because it's one of the dominant languages in America. Other than Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic anyway.

Natasha and I were chasing the mercenaries into the town. I knew they were racing for their other friends, hoping to get us caught in a crossfire, or to get reinforcements. I hope it's both. I wanted to have some fun.

As we rounded a corner leading into the main street of Concord, Natasha and I learned that we were right. The mercenaries _were_ leading us to a trap. As soon as we rounded the corner, we heard bullets flying all around us. I went right into my drilled assassin training. I danced around the bullets, feeling them approach before they were even fired. Call it psychic powers or something, but I'm just good at dodging. I could actually see the bullets flying for me, and I could just nudge myself out of the way quick enough that the bullets barely skimmed my personal aura.

As I danced through the firefight, Natasha was taking bunker behind a rusted car. The weapon she took from her dickless mercenary was some kind of adjustable rifle that was fitted to be a sniper rifle. She was so happy when she got it. She was a trained sniper after all. She brought her rifle up, taking shots at the mercenaries that I couldn't kill from down here.

I looked ahead, seeing five or six mercenaries ahead of me, taking cover behind telephone poles, hiding in buildings. They might as well have said, 'shoot me, I'm stupid.' I brought up my silenced pistol, taking aim at my first idiot. I sprinted up to him, moving so fast that ordinary non-trained assassins think I was flash-stepping, like from Bleach. I just appeared in front of him, pistol aimed at his head. He was so confused I'm sure he crapped himself. I pulled the trigger, blasting him right through his brains. I took his rifle, still held in his hand, wrapped his body around him as I used him as a shield, and grabbed onto his gun arm. I aimed his weapon hand over to some of his friends, pulling his weapon's trigger. I mowed down a few other mercenaries using his own body to do so. His friends had no reservations of shooting through him to get to me. I don't think they know my agent outfit is Kevlar meshing. These… pipe guns, I think, aren't powerful enough to break through my webbing.

While the idiots were focusing on me, Natasha was blasting away with her sniper rifle. With every report of her rifle, there was one less person shooting at me. Some of the idiots were starting to become brave, running up at me with pool sticks and baseball bats. Even dumber than I thought was possible. As one charged up at me, I nodded to Natasha to let me handle it. I dropped my meat shield, letting the used rifle fall from his hands. As it fell I roundhouse kicked that thing into the charging idiot's face. It flew right into him, hitting him hard enough that it knocked him off his feet.

I used that time to flash up to him, palming him hard enough to slam him hard against the ground. I heard every bone in his body snap from the impact. Or it could have been his neck. I'm not entirely sure. All I knew was that he was dead. And I had maybe six left that I needed to deal with. Bullets were barely grazing my agent outfit, some of them actually hitting my back, but like I thought, it wasn't hard enough to break the meshing. I'm going to have some fun now.

My outfit comes with a meshed scarf to use how I like. I had it wrapped around my vulnerable neck, but it was thick enough that I could slide it up to cover my mouth and nose, which is what I like to do during cosplay night with Nate. He enjoys being taken by an assassin badass. It's how we met after all.

I slid my scarf up to protect me all the way up to my nose. I turned around, seeing three of the mercenaries running up to me, trying to spray me with as much bullets as they had left in their guns. I took the knife Natasha handed to me earlier, throwing it at the guy in the front. As soon as I threw it, I sprinted up to him with my assassin grace. The knife throw wasn't perfect and it hit him with the handle instead of the blade. It still made him jump back in fear and slight pain though. And by the time he stumbled back, my foot was already in his face, kicking him with enough strength to push him back into the guy behind him.

I grabbed my knife as it fell to the ground, spinning myself around to throw it at the third guy. Natasha was busy having a shootout with a mercenary with a sniper rifle too. As I released my knife, the third guy was lucky. His discharged gun managed to hit the knife, knocking it away from me and him. With my legs wrapped around guy one, slowly snapping his neck as I twisted myself around, I didn't have a way of killing him. My pistol was already spent. It only held five rounds.

As the mercenary took aim at my head… the only place not properly protected, he exploded into red dust as a red particle beam passed through him. I heard what made up most dance music during the beginning of the 21st Century, a small piece of Dubstep coming through the launched red beam.

I finished snapping the neck of the first guy, landing on my padded knees. Man… living as an American for a year or two has really made me slow and useless. I hate it. Or… it could be the fast my muscles haven't been used in 200 years. Well, I'm sure that balanced it out somehow.

"Hey, you!" The man that was waving at us earlier was waving at me now. "We could use your help! I have some civilians up here, innocent people! And these raiders are trying to kill us! You mind helping us out?"

I stood up, walking over to the second person that was trapped under the first one. I picked up his weapon, aiming right at him. I pulled the trigger five or six times in his head. I looked back up at the guy waving down at me. "Sure! I'll be right up!"

He looked so happy to hear that. "Great! Thanks, I really appreciate it! By the entrance is a laser musket! If you need a weapon, take it! We need all the help we can get!"

I nodded. "We'll be right up."

Natasha walked up next to me, smiling. "That was fun." It was fun. I missed days like this.

* * *

 **Cearbhail:**

So, we have the Addams, the Smiths (one of which is a Russian spy). Soon we'll have a Mindy (BoS Initiate)... and you'll see why she's a reference too. And... mods. Zhanna is one of the modded companions you can add to the beginning of your game. I like having her around so I put her into the fanfiction too. Aliens will be involved too.

And... I know I probably pissed off some hardcore Fallout fans with the ant-centaurs (called Centuriants). They don't exist in any lore, and they speak English. So... for all of you that care, I don't. I really don't. They exist in this story. End of debate. As well as giant cockroaches that people use for horses. They exist too. And squirrels that are just as mean as deathclaws.

Well, anyway. See you next chapter, maybe.


	4. The Peace Accords

**Cearbhail:**

 _Wow, I had so much fun with this chapter, it's not even fair to my other stories. It's like... why couldn't have I been like this back when I started Khajiit Battlemage or Chronicles of Lydia? Why?  
_

 _Enjoy ^^ ..._

* * *

[Nate]

"Hold on, hold on."

I couldn't believe John had the gall to even deny this request. With so many of them that were living here in this town, it was only a sane thing to ask. And… we were at a peace conference. One would expect some amount of demands from one invading side to another.

I glanced from Ambassador Sssshurk back to John. "Sir… I think these are acceptable terms."

John glanced over at me, giving me that 'are you insane' eye. "They want 50 percent of all future crops, rights to our livestock, and full citizen rights."

Sssshurk nodded, clicking his mandibles at the same time. He turned to click in his language to his other Centuriants. In the course on the hour Nora has gone scouting, we've been talking back and forth to the Centuriants, getting to know each other. We found out that when the ash cleared from the town, only radiated zombie people and Codsworth were left. As a few years passed by the ants, eating from the radiated soil and being exposed to some radioactive goo, and then having sexual relation with cockroaches managed to turn them into intelligent insects. Having two brains, one in their head, the other in their ass, will do that to you.

With the irradiated zombies roaming the ground, Codsworth felt it was necessary to take the young insects and breed them to become guardians of Sanctuary, in case some vile presence was ever to invade it. A vile presence like us, I guess. Seeing us with Codsworth, and him talking to us, made them cease their attack, if only out of suspicion. But, as it was, these Centuriants were still the sole proprietors of this settlement, and have been making it their home for the past 100 years at least. As time grew, so did their lifespans, their intelligence, and with Codsworth's help, their understanding of English. They spoke with what sounded like British accents. At least, that's what I think they're speaking in. It's hard to compare accents when you've never heard someone speaking it. Britain fell when they enacted Brexit.

"We're lucky they're letting us live here." I reminded John. "They're letting us build homes in this town of theirs."

John turned to look at me. "We lived here first." He turned back to Ambassador Sssshurk. "I'm sure we can come to some sort of agreement. Full citizenship, equal rights to food and life, but also equal share of chores and defense."

Sssshurk stared at us with unblinking compounded eyes. It's still weird to see. He clicked his mandibles, turning away to click away to the other Centuriants. They all started clicking as well. Some were shaking their antenna, some were clicking madly, waving their four arms around. Others were silently watching as well as I was.

I turned back to Codsworth. "What are they saying?"

Codsworth glanced at me with his three eyes. "Most of the civilians are unsettled by the turn of events plaguing their town. Humans have come before and have tried to kill them. One human in Concord recently went on a rampage and shot the antennas off of some hostile humans. The human seemed to ignore them as they ate the remains of the crying hostiles. These Centuriants are suggesting that the humans they've been at war with are more or less being slowly dealt with, and that these new humans might be trustworthy. After all, it would seem that you are trying to have peace talks. All previous humans have attempted nothing of the sort. Only eradication. Or… extermination is the word that is often thrown around. I suggest you avoid that word at all costs."

I nodded. "Thanks, Codsworth. Can you convince the Centuriants to agree to peace with us?"

Codsworth nodded. "Oh, but of course." He turned to Ambassador Sssshurk and started clicking away, making the sounds by tapping his pincers together quickly enough to produce their sounds. The Centuriants took notice to him and started communicating to him as they started chatting to him.

John and I sat there for a few minutes while they conversed back and forth. As Codsworth clicked away, he looked over at me with one of his three eyeballs. "I am making progress. I shall be your ambassador henceforth. They do respect me as their god after all."

Well, that's some good news for us. Codsworth was very civil for the two months I owned him… before I abandoned him to an exploding bomb anyway, leaving him utterly alone with nothing but bugs worshiping him while he continually had to protect them from invading hostile humans while independently being served on as a god from the insects he was protecting. It wasn't like his computing was in any way damaged from years of isolation and abuse. It's not like he secretly hates humans and wants to draw us in to be his slaves for his Overlord plans for the Commonwealth by siding with some sort of Mechanical creationist who is sole bent on 'protecting' the Commonwealth with her creations.

I found myself swallowing what could be the hard truth as I looked away from Codsworth. "Codsworth…"

He looked over at me. "Yes, sir?"

"I really appreciate you." I said with a wide smile.

He looked at me for a few seconds before saying, "Sir… you're acting strange. Stop it." He went back to talking to the Centuriants. And I was left in my chair, looking at John. He had his hand resting on his gun. I sure hope this did not end badly for us.

…

[Nora]

I took a deep breath, glancing back at Natasha. "Are you ready?"

The Russian spy living as an American studious fashion designer nodded as she pushed a loose strand of dark auburn hair out of her eyes. "Always, love." She brought up her pipe rifle, nodding to me. "You go in hard; I'll cover your back. If you feel something caress your cheek, know that is only the kiss of my support as my newly released round penetrates the hearts of your foes."

"Wow…" I looked back at her smiling. "That was the most beautiful thing I've ever heard."

She nodded. "How do you think I got John to fall in love with me?" She nodded to me. "Ok, love. Let's go."

I nodded, turning towards the door. I took a deep breath as I pushed my palm out, smashing what remained of the entrance to the museum. I screamed out a kiai as I pushed my qi through my palm. The door exploded ahead of me. There was one lone raider standing guard, waiting for us. He was welcomed to the exploding shrapnel. He quickly cursed, firing his rifle off blindly as he shielded his eyes. As we already know… my entire outfit, up to my eyes at least, is bulletproof. I had no reservations to rushing in and taking him on. I felt a few rounds collide against my shoulder, one against my thigh… it wasn't so bad. It still hurts like hell. I'll have welts for a couple days unless I can find some tiger balm anyway.

As I raced up to the raider, I noticed the raiders hanging overhead of us on the second and third floor. Some of them were firing at the door, and some were turning their attention down at me. From the second floor and up… the flying pattern of bullets would likely strike my higher regions… like my exposed head. Not good.

"Natasha!" I screamed. "Upper floors."

"Right, love." She called as she pulled her rifle in. "Calvary's here." There were several reports from her rifle. And several screams from the raiders. Some falling from the second floor, slamming hard on the ground.

In that time, I was dodging bullets falling down at me. And I was dancing with the only raider I could reach at the time. He was trying to shoot me, I was trying to break his arms. It was a fun dance. Unfortunately, his friends seemed just as willing to shoot him as they did me. My dance pretty much saved my life about… ten times? Yeah, ten times. That's how many holes were in the raider's face anyway, or what remained of it. If you don't get what I'm trying to say… I used his body as a shield, spinning him around me like a ragdoll while his friends from up above shot at me. His face absorbed every round… until it exploded anyway. What's up with that? Why'd his head explode? That's just weird.

So, when Natasha picked off the last one, I let my headless friend fall to the ground. Not the first man I've left headless today. If you get it, you get it.

I stood there in the open for a few seconds, waiting for some sort of sound. All I heard was the sound of Natasha walking into the room. "Well, that was fun." She scanned the room. "Should we move on?"

I shook my head. "You should stay here and guard the door. Use that rifle of yours to keep others from following behind me."

She nodded. "Got you covered." She took cover by the doorway, looking out just enough that she could see what was going on. "You go on ahead; I'll stay right here." She reloaded.

I pulled out my knife and my silenced pistol. Time to do what I do best. Go in hard and fast, beat someone around, and then when they think they're finished… I make sure they're not. That's how Shaun was conceived anyway. In the park… with everyone watching. It was fun.

I took off towards the locked gate. There is no gate that can withstand me. If only Nate was here. He has a… magical touch with locked things. His muscles just… I don't know how he does it. One flex of his muscly arms and then… the lock just unhinges. It's really weird. I'm kidding. He smashes the lock apart like a monster. You should see it sometime. He's a hulk in his own way.

Luckily for me… I'm very, very… sly. I did a Jackie Chan and squeezed myself through the bars. One of the only times I'm happy that I'm not well-endowed. As I squeezed through the bars, I could hear the slightly older woman scoff at me. "Show off."

"You're just jealous." I replied back.

"I'm three times your size, love. I'm not." She replied, turning her attention back to the street. "Just be quick. I don't have much ammo left."

I nodded to her and took off up the ramp, until I noticed something underneath me. It was a locked gate with what looked like a fusion core sitting inside a power unit. Huh… A fusion core? And it looked like it was very much still active. I had to have it. It might come in handy later, especially if we don't have any fusion cores back home in Sanctuary. Unlimited power at my fingertips. Imagine the explosive possibilities later on… and the limitless electricity for basic necessities right now.

So, I walked down the destroyed floor down to the basement, which housed the locked gate and the fusion core within it. It looked like the floor had caved in during some sort of explosion. Possibly a grenade or something. Or an atomic explosion. Maybe that one.

I slid down the destroyed floorboard to the gate. I looked at the locked terminal, waved dismissively at it and then squeezed myself through the gate far enough that I could reach the core. I pulled it from its charging port. The machine's overhead light sputtered a few seconds, giving me a mini-seizure in the process. I turned my head away, taking the fusion core with me. I quickly pulled myself out of the gate and continued on my quest to save those people. Why I was doing this was beyond me, but I think it would be a great chance for intelligence gathering. For my fanfiction. Oh… and so we can understand the world we live in. That too. And… well… I like helping people, sometimes.

I walked across many discarded weapons, all of which I did not know anything about. I took their ammo though. Perhaps I can do something with it later. As I made my way up to the second floor, I went back into stealth mode, hugging the wall as I quickly stealthed my way across the museum. As I entered a small precariously slender hallway, I could hear voices up ahead.

"Hey…"

I paused, pulling up my knife. They must have heard me somehow.

"Yeah?" The other guy asked.

"You ever wonder why we're here?"

"It's one of life's great mysteries, isn't it? I mean… are we the product of some radioactive coincidence, or is there really an Atom… with a plan for us and stuff?" He took a deep breath. "I don't know man… but it keeps me up at night."

There was a long pause falling between the two, and honestly, I was prepared to join in on the conversation. I was so eager to join this, but I had to remember… they would kill me the second I poked my head up. Wait a second… I'm a lawyer! I can talk my way out of everything.

As I prepared to stand up and make my case, but the first guy was already speaking. "What? I meant… why are we in here in this small room? It's not like we're expecting an ambush from someone."

"Oh… um…"

"And what about all this stuff with Atom?"

"Nothing."

"Are you one of those Children of Atom?"

"Hmm? No."

"You sure?"

"… yup."

"Seriously though, why are we in here? As far as I can tell, we're raiding a small community of perhaps five people in the middle of nowhere. One of which is a decent fighter with a decent weapon protecting some distraught settlers. The only reason we raided these people over here was because they set up camp. And we set up camp inside the town over there. So… if we set up camp, and they set up camp, that would make us neighbors. Shouldn't we be… I don't know… befriending them? Make our whole community stronger? Protect us from the horrors of this world, which include deathclaws, flashes, and ghouls? Not to mention the Institute Synths."

He had a good point. It seemed pointless to drag out this conflict. Both sides were losing precious supplies and ammo because of this attempted raid. Not to mention the lives I've already wasted just getting here. I think I had the case I needed to solve this.

I jumped out from behind my cover. "Excuse me."

"Oh shit!" The one philosophical raider said as he turned to face me. "It's a freelancer."

I held up my hands. "I heard what you said. If you promise to lay down your weapons, I will not kill you. And let me tell you… I've been cleaning house all day today."

One of the raiders sighed, gesturing to the other with his lowered weapon. "Well, Grif. I guess you have a new friend."

Grif sighed. "Shut up, Simmons." He looked back at me. "Yeah, fine. I hate this crap anyway." He tossed down his weapon. He looked back at Simmons. "You should do the same."

Simmons looked at me. "It does seem unlikely that I will win." He tossed his rifle down.

I nodded to them. "Good choice." I nodded to them. "Just, lie down and pretend to be dead."

Grif smiled. "Finally, something I'm good at."

I walked over to them, tying up their arms and legs as I secured their weapons. "I'll be back to release you once this is all said and done."

I left the two bickering raiders as I continued down the hallway, coming up to a staircase leading me to the third floor. I hadn't really been considering the environment that this building seemed to represent. Everything was dusty, broken, still held together in a way that looked redeemable. I think this one building spoke of what the world was possibly like. Looted, broken, rotting down to nothing… but still standing. Still here, still representing the life from before. This building could be fixed, could be rebuilt to its proper glory. If only someone actually took time to do it. Instead, raiders have been busting down doors, tossing grenades, everything of the sort. The building was in more shambles than I'm sure it has been for the past 200 years of negligence. All in the course of one afternoon too.

As I ascended the staircase, I could hear more raiders up ahead. "I don't care how you do it… just get the door open." It sounded like they were on the other side of the wall. I could see a door that would take me to them. I started making my way over to that door. Maybe I can take them by surprise.

"Ok…" I heard a thud. "Gods… my other palm!"

"Stop hitting the door! It has nails sticking out of it!" The raider said. "Just, throw a grenade or something."

"Oh… that would be smarter." The raider said.

"I wouldn't do that!" The guy that invited us up screamed.

"And why not?" The head raider screamed.

I stealthed my way across the room, opening the door that would take me to them. I was back in the main central space. I could see some of the headless raiders Natasha shot for me. I would have to collect their ammo later. As I started sneaking up on the raiders, I could hear the man on the other side of the door scream. "It would upset my friend."

"Your friend?" The leader raider asked.

I started to bring up my knife, just a few feet away from them.

"Yeah… the one right behind you."

Both of the raiders freaked out, turning around. Too late for them. I snapped my hand out, slamming my knife right into the leader's throat. At the same time, I snapped out my foot, catching the bleeding raider in the nose. He screamed out a protest as I kicked him over the railing. He fell to the first floor, hitting hard enough to make Natasha jump.

I glanced down over the railing, waving to her. "Sorry, comrade!"

She waved to me. "Is fine, love."

I turned back to the door, looking for a spot to knock on. "Um…" I didn't find one. "We're in the clear now."

"I know… I'm just… moving this aside." I could hear him dragging something out of the way. Finally, the door pushed open, revealing the guy that was waving to us earlier. "Thank you so much for helping us." He vigorously shook my hand. "Man, I don't know who you two are, but your timing is impeccable. You have no idea how much it means to us that you stepped in when you did."

I nodded. "Well…" I couldn't think of anything to say, so I just shrugged. "You know."

He continued to stare at me for a second, as if expecting something. When he finally shrugged, he said, "Well, anyway. My name is Preston Garvey, Commonwealth Minutemen."

"Minutemen?" What the heck was that? "Like the rice?" I think that was a brand of rice.

Garvey shook his head. "No… more like… a band… of brothers. They were civilian militants that were self-trained in weaponry during the old colonial stages of America, back when it was still a colony of Britain. They were perhaps some of the best America had to offer when they started revolting to Britain which led to the Revolutionary War."

Well, those were a bunch of worthless facts that I didn't need to know about this country. "Oh, ok." I nodded like I was listening.

If he noticed that I didn't care, he didn't show it. He was still rambling on about it. "To protect people at a minute's notice. That was the goal; the mission statement. So, I joined, thought I'd do some good. And then… well… I ended up in this little town called…"

I stopped listening to what he said and started looking around the room. I could see the civilians he referred to. The old woman Natasha described to me looked at me funny. Dogmeat was already sitting at her lap, nuzzling her. How dare she steal my awesome dog like that!

"And then right when we thought we stood a chance…" I wonder how Nate was doing…

…

[Nate]

"So, we have an accord." Codsworth stated aloud for us. He turned to look at us as he repeated what he had been clicking for the past few minutes. "The Centuriants have come up with a brilliant way of settling this conflict." That did not sound good. "The Centuriants have decided to let this little incident go without warning or punishment. They understand how they must appear to you humans, for they have also gone through the same kind of reaction when they met humans for the first time. They are prepared to let this incident slide and offer you conditional residence in their town."

"Conditional?" John asked. "What kind of conditions?"

Codsworth looked over at him. "It is pretty obvious that Centuriants cannot farm. Their mandibles and thumbless claws are pretty insignificant when it comes to tilling the fields and tenderly planting and maintaining new fields. The previous conditions of 50 percent of your crops have doubled to nearly 100 percent of all 'their' crops. You are allowed to maintain your own set of crops of whatever size you deem worthy for your settlers, as well as your own livestock, but they insist that you also have some amount of workers handle their crops for them. For this exchange of properly preparing them for the coming winter, they are willing to exchange their princess to us as a gift."

"Princess?" I almost screamed.

As if on cue the crowd started to move aside as a slender Centuriant with long wavy antennas wearing a sparkly flowing robe adorned with some kind of vine belt at her waist walked up to us. She held herself very courtly, nodding to us. Her skin was a softer brown than the other ants, looking almost regal in a way that I thought no ant ever could before. Damn… to even think of an ant like this… it's not human. It's like I actually considered her a person… some kind of kindred spirit with a soul and emotions and stuff. And I haven't even spoken to her yet.

John looked just as perplexed as I did. "What on God's green Earth is that?"

Codsworth looked over at us. "It's a Fire Centuriant, sir."

The princess nodded to us as she scuttled up on her cockroach bottom half. "My name is Alanna."

"Wow. That sounds like a human name." John replied.

She looked at him. "Um… thank you…" She replied uncertainly, shying away from us. "Please… be gentle with me. This is my first…"

"What?" John roared. "No. We're not doing anything to you."

She looked surprised. "But… the treaty demands that… I…" She looked away.

I looked at Codsworth. "Just say we agree to their terms. We don't need…" I waved my hands across Alanna. "All this."

She looked slightly offended, clicking her mandibles. "I am sorry I am not to your pleasing…"

"We're married!" I waved to John and me.

"Oh… congratulations, sirs." Codsworth stated. "Luckily for you, the Centuriants are very open with the idea of gay marriage. I guess you could say they're more human than most Republicans."

"Hey…" I looked back at Codsworth. "I'm married to Nora. He's married to that sweet woman Jane. And I'm Republican!" I shouted to him.

"Congratulations, sir." Codsworth stated.

"So… you're not interested in my body because you already have a mate?" Alanna asked. She nodded. "That is a fitting conclusion to this treaty's request. I can have my body back, and you can live here in peace with us."

I couldn't believe it was actually over. "Wow. So… we're welcome here now?"

Alanna shrugged. "I will talk to Mother but… I think she'll allow it. And um… thanks… for… you know… not taking advantage of me."

I wanted to vomit just thinking of it. "No problem." I looked back at John. "So… we should go get the rest of our neighbors. I think we're good now."

Every Centuriant's antennas went straight up. The warriors started bringing up their spears, turning around everywhere, scanning for a threat they couldn't see.

"What? Was it something we said?" We already mentioned the other residents waiting for us so… that shouldn't have triggered this reaction.

Alanna looked at us with her round young face. "No… it's not that. It's a Flash."

"A Flash?" I looked at John. "I didn't see a flash, did you?"

He shrugged. "I think we would have died by now."

Codsworth looked back at us. "Sirs… I must confess something to you. A 'Flash' is one of the worst predators in the Commonwealth. They are from Ohio, sir… and have migrated all the way down here."

"Ohio?" That bum-ass state?

Codsworth nodded. "Kent, more specifically."

I nodded. "Oh, right… the Flashes, their basketball team."

Codsworth shook his head. "No… the Flashes are creatures of black fur, long bushy tails, long teeth for gnashing."

"Squirrels?" I asked. That sounded like a squirrel.

Codsworth shrugged with his three arms. "Sort of, only… armored, tall as a horse, and fast as a bolt of lightning. Hence the name… Flash."

I nodded. "Ok, I think I get it. Black Squirrels, right?"

Codsworth nodded. "The very same ones the students from Kent State University engineered one day, which became their mascot and sports team name. These black squirrels were welcomed to radioactivity, becoming the monsters they were always perceived to be. The Flashes…"

Oh no… and… Nora was out there on her own!

…

[Nora]

Preston was still yammering away, but now it was about his adventure that led him up to here. How he was attacked by Gunners, which I guess was some kind of militia; ghouls, which he described as humans baked in a microwave for too long; and super mutants… which I knew all too much about. Had to kill several of them during the Sino-American War. They're not so tough… and they're stupid.

I had to admit, for a weird random meeting with this guy, he was sure telling me everything I could possibly ever want to know about this place in one sitting. I'm glad I ran into a walking exposition train like him.

"Oh no…" The old woman with the disfigured face of a mole rat started slightly opening her eyes, glancing around. "I can feel them…"

Preston Garvey sighed as he turned around. "What now, Mama Murphy?"

"It's… black… furry… slender… filled with nuts…." She started saying.

I could tell Preston was doing all he could to not lose it. "Mama Murphy… stop with the dick jokes. This isn't 2016's presidential election. Drop it."

The trance she was in finally snapped to a halt. She glanced at us with a face filled with grim understanding. "It's a Flash…"

That quieted everyone down. Preston stared at her for a few seconds before cursing. "Aw… shucks." He threw his hat on the ground. "I knew today was going to suck." He looked back at the mechanic guy sitting by a computer. "Well… you think it might work?"

He nodded. "Yeah… but we'll need a fusion core."

Fusion core? I looked down at my belt, pulling it off and waving at them. "Well, aren't I just convenient today?"

Everyone's face lit up. Preston nodded. "Yes, yes you are." He nodded to the mechanic. "Sturges, tell her the plan."

And so… Sturges started talking, and kind of stopped listening.

* * *

 **Cearbhail:**

So, some new characters. Some exposition. A lot of death. And Red Vs Blue reference. And... just so you know, that won't be the last time we see those two. And soon, we'll be meeting Mindy and Dave. Two Brotherhood squires. And soon after that, Violet. Not to mention the other companions at their own times. I can't wait until we get far enough in to get to the Mechanist and Arcania. Gods... it would take me forever, but luckily, I'm still very much alive and not dead. I have time.


	5. Flash By

**Cearbhail:**

 _This turned out pretty good. I really enjoyed my new character... Willow.  
_

 _Enjoy ^^ ..._

* * *

[Nora]

Well, I have to say… I never thought I'd be on the other side of one of these things. Sturges, after finding out I was ignoring him entirely, told me to go outside with the fusion core and just… see what was waiting for me on the roof. So, I walked to the staircase leading to the roof, opening the door to see a downed VB-02, a flying troop transport/gunship. China, of course, was spying on this technology. The VB-02 sitting up here was obviously a prototype. The VB-01s used in Anchorage were bigger, clunky, probably less maneuverable. As far as I know… they never made it past the assembly line. If only this thing could still work. If only we had… an engineer. Oh wait… we do. If I recall… Fester Addams was an engineer. Guy was great with building anything. He kept all of Sanctuary Hills busy with all his explosions. Ok… not the best example I could bring myself to think of.

Still… a crashed VB-02. You never get to see these. I only ever dreamed I'd get the chance to run up a building, jump inside one, decapitate the dumb Americans inside, and then crash into a nearby camp screaming, 'kamikaze' or something like that. Maybe get them to start a war with Japan or something. That would be funny.

Standing right next to the crashed VB-02 was a full set of power armor, the T-45 version we saw all the time on the frontlines. I could see that the full set of armor was abandoned and its fusion core was ejected. Whomever piloted this aircraft did not decide to take the power armor with him. What a shame. Oh well, more for me.

I took the fusion core in my hands and inserted it into the power armor. Obviously, Sturges wanted me to use this power armor to take down the incoming quick jackrabbit of a squirrel. I wonder what it would look like. Everyone described it as a giant squirrel with quills of a hedgehog, only smaller. I don't think they know what a hedgehog is. Maybe they're thinking of a porcupine.

I twisted the core into the bulky suit of armor, twisting the opening valve. Just like that, the exterior snapped open. Every limb's coverings slid open, beckoning me to climb inside. So… I did just that. I grabbed onto the safety handles, planted my first foot in, making sure it felt snug in the foot placement, and then I slowly slid my body into the power armor. As soon as I was inside the armor, I pressed the open/close button on the right arm's handle. The suit started slowly closing down all around me. I could feel the back slide down, slamming me gently as it fell into place. Almost at the same time, the arms and legs started closing up, trapping me inside. As everything closed, my helmet's HUD lit up, showing me the suit of armor's status, as well as my health.

I gave the suit a small test. I flexed my arms forward. The suit moved with me. I tried jumping; the suit jumped. It would take some getting used to, but… I think I got it. Time to use this thing to be even more unstoppable. I walked up to the crashed VB-02. According to what Sturges was telling me, I think he mentioned me using the minigun or something like that. English is hard for me some days. And his accent is even harder for me to understand. That's right, I'm not lazy or unobservant, only tired and needing a nap. It's like I did nothing but sleep for 200 years. I need a small nap.

I slowly clambered my way over to the crashed VB-02. Lifting my legs was pretty easy, but man… it was still pretty exhausting. Add in the fact that I hate being in tight spaces… add in the fact that I distrust any American technology… and you have me trapped in a walking can of sardines. Great. Let's just get this over with.

With each step I took, I could feel the loose balcony roof shifting underneath me. I sure hope it stood up to everything I was giving it. If this whole building fell down around me, it won't matter if I'm in this suit or not. Climbing into the downed VB was not any easier. One step and the whole thing shifted. Old propellers started to groan as I shifted my weight inside the flying plane. It had to hold up. These things were designed for transporting armored soldiers into the frontlines. It could take a pounding. Just look at the building. A whole VB-02 crashed down on top of it, breaking through the ceiling. The most that happened to the mechanical gunship was a few broken propellers, shattered cockpit, ruptured fuel line, corroded armor plating, loosened minigun, dead pilot, broken spirits, and… to top it all off, a partridge in a pear tree… I don't know why it even has that in the back. Maybe someone was getting ready for Christmas… as everyone DOES on Hallow's Eve. Stop dissing on my husband's favorite holiday.

I gently walked into the VB's platform, walking over to the loosened minigun. I wrapped my hands around the thing and just… yanked it off. Just like with my husband. And the raiders I met earlier. I checked the minigun for rounds. I counted a full belt. Sweet. That's like… 800 rounds or something. It's a lot of rounds. I know that much.

As I stepped out of the VB, I caught sight of a raider standing on a rooftop nearby. "Hey… Sarge? I see someone on the roof. It has a minigun."

"Minigun, you say?" I heard a gruff voice call out. "Hmm… I don't like it."

I continued walking out towards the edge of the roof. I could see a full wave of raiders waiting for me, almost 30 of them. Jeez, with as many as I killed already, there must have been near 70 raiders in this town alone… and they have problems fighting one man with four defenseless civilians?

As I stepped up to the edge, I knew they could see my power armor as well as my minigun. I opened up my loudspeaker, calling out to the raiders down below. "I have more than enough rounds to put you all down. Leave… and I'll let you live."

"Grr…" The gruff voice called again. "No. Today is a good day to die!" He pumped his shotgun. "Charge."

I sighed as I brought my minigun down on top of him. I squeezed the trigger, spraying him, and everyone around him, with my minigun.

"Retreat!" The same man cried as he turned around. Every raider turned and ran off. I kept spraying my minigun at them, purposefully not hitting anyone. Well, maybe the one in pink armor. The one that spotted me in the first place. The guy was pretty nimble, dodging my rounds with a practiced ease as he jumped from the roof, using his own rifle and a power cord as a zip line straight to the ground. "Get to cover. The enemy is crafty; must be a freelancer."

"Could be a vault dweller." The pink armored one said as he jumped into an abandoned store.

"A dirty blue? No… they're too stupid to be this crafty." The gruff one said.

I looked down at the raiders. "Look! I'm willing to give you one last chance to depart. I have a psychic woman and she says that a Flash is coming. So… you should leave before it gets here. We want only to leave this place. If you leave, I won't have to kill you."

"Never!" The gruff one said.

I sighed. "Natasha?"

"Roger." She called from the ground entrance. I heard her gun cough and the gruff one's head snapped back.

"Sarge!" The pink one called. "No!" He raced to the fallen raider.

The other raiders stood by watching with wavering confidence as the pink one cried on their leader's chest. Ugh… I hated these moments. I almost brought my minigun down on top of him, just to shut him up. But… I left him alive. His crying might make the other soldiers give up. Demotivation at its finest.

"And I have more than enough rounds to put you all down." Natasha said from the ground entrance.

I cleared my throat. I wanted to give them _one last_ chance to run away. I don't have time for this. "Leave and…"

I was cut off by the sound of a sewer grate flying into a building far away. "What was that?" I asked.

"Run!" A raider screamed.

"It's a Flash!"

"The power armor was right!"

I could barely see whatever it was they were going on about, but I heard all the raiders shooting their weapons off, breaking their cover to run for even better cover. I couldn't just stand up here. As far as I remember… these power armors were capable of freefalling. It was something the Americans loved to do the most from their VB-01s. We would watch from the ground as we heard the propellers approaching; the soft sound of that classical music from a long forgotten age. I remember it being called Riding the Vanities, or something like that. What a weird culture the Americans are. Anyway, they'd come flying in on their flying stereos and then freefall from their birds in their power armor, slamming our frontlines with their explosive leg engines, throwing up dirt and rubble into our faces as they fired their energy weapons and miniguns at us. It was the only way to make the war fair for the American slime.

And now… that same technology and technique belong to me now. Huh… we're always stealing from them, aren't we? Oh well, I do it better. I swallowed hard as I jumped off the roof, falling fast and heavy. I won't lie, my legs went numb, my breath caught in my throat, and I hit the ground with a reverberation that would have shattered my spine without my gel inserts in the boots that still remained intact.

I took a second or two to open my eyes, let my breath escape, and then… just laugh at the fact that I was _still_ alive. That was… dangerously, horrifyingly, exciting. And now… I had to find that moving squirrel thing. "Natasha, did you see where it went?"

Natasha nodded from the doorway. "Nice super hero landing, by the way. The… whatever it was went down the alleyway. The Raiders are departing. You might want to take care of the thing while you have the chance."

I nodded. "I was told to kill the thing. So… that's why I got this." I showed her my minigun. "Keep cover fire. If you got a shot on the beast, take it. I hear they're quite vicious."

I didn't wait for her to answer as I rushed into the main road. I could see the pink armored raider kneeling over the headshot Sarge guy. It was then I could see that Sarge wasn't dead. That helmet he wore actually managed to deflect Natasha's round, or she shot him like that on purpose. Either way… the guy was pretty stunned, but he'd be fine.

I glanced at the pink one. "You should get your friend and get to cover. I'll take care of the Flash."

He nodded, grabbing Sarge by his legs. "Come on, Sarge." The pink one started dragging him off towards one of those old health stores filled with herbal supplements.

I focused my attention back to the other raiders still running for their lives. I saw one wave to me. "Over here! I see it! We're going to need…" Just like that, a giant black thing jumped out of the alleyway he was pointing in. It moved so fast, rushing the raider, rolling around him. And before I could react by bringing my massive gun up, the raider was left standing headless. Blood shot up like an animated fountain from his exposed neck. His body slowly began to collapse to the ground.

I tried to bring my barrel up but I couldn't seem to see the moving creature. But I heard it. The deep growling chitters, loud and booming like an American made Ford truck backfiring back from they had gasoline. Our farmers in China still used them when I was a child. The sound was coming from a downed car, and I could see the shadow of the beast. It was much bigger than I thought it would have been. As a test, I fired off a few rounds at the car. I must have hit something explody because the car exploded into a fiery mess. And out of the rising mini-mushroom cloud came jumped a black mess of quills, flying right at me. I only had enough time to pull the trigger as the huge monster fell down on top of me.

I heard Natasha fire off a few rounds that bounced off the Flash's quills, hit me, bounced off my plates, and then hit the pink-armored raider and Sarge. The rounds from my minigun that I fired off were barely penetrating, bouncing off everywhere. And that was only half a second before that black-quilled bastard fell on top of me, biting down on my power armor's helmet with his massive two front incisors.

An emergency alert message started flashing in my HUB. _"Warning, warning. Too much direct pressure with external force will result in internal folding. To minimize threat to head trauma, please evacuate yourself from suit."_ A voiced V.I. said. It had a feminine voice, sounding flat, boring, and most importantly… referency.

As the helmet around me started to crush, I instantly had a question. "What? Who are you?"

 _"My creator named me Willow Wisp. I am this suit's virtual intelligence unit. I run the basic systems such as healing unit, shield generator, and… waste disposal. My creator also attached a digital journal, among other things."_ A virtual journal? Oh… Oh…

"We're going to be great friends." I said to Willow Wisp. "I'm going to call you Lydia."

 _"That name does not compute. I am Willow Wisp."_ Lydia replied.

I shrugged. "Ok, Willow. I'll just call you Willow. So… give me my options. What does this tin suit have that I can use?"

 _"Warning, warning. Helmet's structural integrity is down to 20%. Recommend ejection of helmet."_ A small video of my suit being ejected showed the creature on top of me. With the ejection of the helmet, I would be given a small opportunity to climb out and shoot the creature in its belly. _"Analysis of Flash completed. Weak spots include exposed stomach, armpits, and… genitals. I have read your psyche from your eye scan… you enjoy aiming at genitals. Recommend immediate groin shot upon ejection."_

That was quite the recommendation. "Why not just do it now? And what will happen to you? Aren't you linked to the helmet? Can I even operate this suit without the helmet?"

 _"I am located in the chest area of the armor. The helmet is not important to overall function of the T-45 Power Armor. This unit was made in China."_ Well, that's at least means it will actually work then.

I nodded. "Ok, Willow. Prepare to eject the helmet. And then, I want options. What can I use to kill this thing?"

 _"Scanning. Scanning… Scanning complete. No options available. This intelligence unit was made in China, but armor was made in America. They were not prepared for squirrel/porcupine hybrid apocalypse."_ Wow… how couldn't they be? They should have predicted this very thing would have ended up happening. Oh well, time to be inventive. _"Warning… helmet armor has been breached. Ejecting."_

I felt the helmet's latches suddenly release. I pushed myself out of my helmet just in time to escape the whole thing break apart. It was suddenly aware that I was underneath the whole giant squirrel. Before, I didn't get a good look at the thing. But, now I could see it very clearly. It was like a giant porcupine. Its fur was long and pointy, and what used to be a bushy tail was now a giant spike fest, its quills sticking up everywhere. It looked more like a Sandslash than anything else. Just like the one on my Pokemon Go app.

I looked down at the genital end of the squirrel… and I found no nuts or dick to shoot off. "Willow!" I screamed to the now silent V.I. This thing is a girl! No balls for me to shoot! My one weakness. "It's has no balls!"

 _"Hmm..."_ I heard a small voice come from my chest via speaker. _"Interesting. Adapting original strategy. The original was to shoot off the head… now we're going to be original and… shoot off its head."_ Oh… the other head. Yeah, I can manage that.

I twisted myself up, bringing up my minigun. "Die!" I screamed as I let loose with the minigun at the bottom jaw of the Flash. I saw my bullets rip through the underjaw of the Flash, but it reacted fast enough that it jumped into the air, leaping a good 20 feet, landing on a nearby roof. Blood was dripping from its mouth, both of its front incisors were marred beyond function. The Flash looked down at me with its black beady eyes, glaring hatefully at me. That deep truck-coughing chittering started up again as the giant squirrel leapt back down. With each chitter, the Flash spat its blood everywhere. The blood was iridescent green and deep red. I could smell the radiation from here.

"Natasha!" I cried.

"On it, love!" She screamed from the doorway. I heard three reports from her rifle. And the Flash was reacting appropriately. It was scattering away, grabbing its now punctured eye. The Flash turned around, glaring at me one last time, chittering a warning laugh as it backed into an alleyway. Well, maybe that will be the end of it.

I took a deep as I started to pick myself up. "Jeez… this was too hard." I looked down at the fractured helmet. "It's harder to kill things that don't have dicks to shoot."

Natasha appeared from the doorway. "Well, I'm glad that's over. That thing… what was that?"

"They call it a Flash." I replied. "It's a radiated squirrel."

Natasha cured in Russian. "I hope I never see one those ever again."

"We didn't even kill it. I doubt it's gone for good. It will probably jump us any moment." I would have to go hunt it now.

 _"Area scanners detect no Flash in area. Likely it retreated to the sewers to hide and regain its strength."_ Willow replied.

I nodded to Natasha. "Grab the survivors. Get them out of here. I'll keep on lookout for the beast in case it pops back up."

Natasha nodded, heading back inside. "Hey!" Preston yelled from above. "I saw the whole thing. You managed to chase it off. We'll be right down. We're going to make a run for Sanctuary now." Sanctuary? Why? Why were they heading up there?

I looked up at him. "Um… why are you going _there_?"

Preston shrugged. "Mama Murphy keeps saying we'll be safe up there. A new home. A new life."

Well… if he believes that… it might be true. "Ok… I know the way up. Just follow me." As long as he doesn't try to take my house as his own… we should be good.

I nodded to Natasha as she joined me outside. "Natasha… keep an eye out for the Flash. If you see it… take out its other eye. Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll scamper around blind."

Preston nodded. "Sounds like a good plan to me. Flashes might repel regular bullets, but laser weapons tear right through its quills. Here, take this laser musket." He handed me a long-barreled… thing. I could see a small plastic tube filled with what looked like red light. A laser weapon? I've seen more advanced versions of this weapon when I fought the Americans… but never a constructed piece of crap like this.

"How does this thing even work?" I noted the crappy exterior, the small plastic tubing that acted as the focusing chamber. No way this should be possible. Well, actually… noting how I know lasers are made… it actually might be probable. But using such outdated tubing for it would build a weak charge, nothing strong enough to deal any real damage. And why the crank? It's not like you can crank colored light particles into a stronger beam…

I shrugged as I took the laser musket, passing it off to Natasha. "I think you'll need this." I'll just stick to my minigun. At least until I get home.

I bent down, picking up the shattered T-45 helmet. I think I would keep this. If someone can fix it, I'll have a way to complete this power armor again.

The rest of the people from Sanctuary started following out behind Preston and Natasha. One included a depressing man with an angry wife… and the old seer woman, as well as Sturges. Jeez… I don't know much about these people and yet I know I did not really want them in my gated community. Oh well. I can't get picky. Probably the last sane humans in the world. Might as well socialize with them.

I walked up to the angry-looking woman. "Hey…"

She growled at me. "We're not friends."

"I just saved your life." Seriously, I'm not a bad person!

She scoffed and looked away. "We'll just see. We're not at Sanctuary yet. And saving my life does not make you my friend." Bitch.

I looked at the depressing man. "So… is she?"

He nodded. "My wife… yes. And now you know why I'm depressed." Ah man… what a killjoy.

I looked at Mama Murphy. "So…"

She nodded. "You will find your son." Well… that's good news.

"Tell me more."

She squinted her eyes, making choking noises as her eyes flickered around under hey half-closed eyelids. "I see him… but… he's not where you expect. I see… a dick…"

"Ha!" Preston snorted. "Figures."

"He's a dick." Mama Murphy replied. "No… wait… not a dick… he's… he's an asshole. And the Brotherhood are dicks… and the Film Actors Guild… are pussies." Oh, I remember that movie. What a classic. Seriously… it's a classic. And it was just appearing in the few movie theaters we had in China for the first time right when I was a child. I guess our government didn't want us watching a movie dedicated to mocking our southern 'friend' Korea.

"So… my son's an asshole?" That was perhaps he rudest thing to call a baby boy. Sure, he cries and throws temper tantrums, but what baby boy doesn't?

Mama Murphy nodded. "I wish I could tell you more… but the Sight is oddly quest specific… and useless convenient spoiler-free information…"

"So… my son?" I tried to probe her for more information. "Where is he?"

She shrugged. "Look, kid…"

"Kid?" I scoffed. "Please, I'm at least 100 years older than you."

She shrugged again. "Ok, I'll give you that one. Look, grandma…" That just sounds as weird as being called kid. "I don't need the Sight to tell you where to begin: Diamond City."

"Diamond City?"

 _"There is no data on this unit's knowledge of Diamond City."_ Willow stated.

"Ok, thanks Siri." I replied.

 _"My designation is Willow Wisp. I do not understand your Siri name."_

"You answered a question I did not ask you. It was an annoying phone app that you couldn't turn off and always turned itself on whenever you didn't want it to, and answered questions you never intended to ask. It's voice recognition was shit, and you ended up having to type your question whenever you actually wanted to ask something… especially if you have a Chinese accent." I have a grudge against that app and its racist inability to understand me.

 _"I understand. I will only answer if you ask me directly. Fair?"_ I guess that was a fair way of settling this.

"Sure." I turned my attention back to Mama Murphy. "So, this Diamond City. Where is it?"

She glanced at me with her squinting eyes. Her face terrified me to no end. "It's a town to the south of here. If you had a Pip Boy, I would mark it on your map, but you lack one."

"My husband has one." I said to her.

Mama Murphy nodded. "I will mark it on his map."

Preston smirked. "Jeez. That sounds annoying. Just touching someone else's Pip Boy and marking random places on their map. Hmm…" He rubbed his chin. "Come to think of it… I know a few settlements that could use some help…" He looked at me and then Natasha. "And you two seem very dependable."

I shook my head. "Maybe later, but we're busy bringing you home right now."

He nodded. "Right, sorry I even asked. How far away is Sanctuary anyway?"

I glanced up the road. We were already heading out of Concord, coming up to the road leading to the gas station. "Should be right past this gas station. You'll see a bridge, and right across that bridge will be Sanctuary." I glanced back at Natasha. "How are we back there? See that thing yet?"

She shook her head. "Nothing, love. I think it went into hiding. The raiders are already departing the town though. I think they're just as afraid of the thing as we are. Good… that means they're smart. I doubt we'll ever see them ever again."

…

[Sarge]

"Come on, Sarge, you got to breathe! Don't give up on me, soldier!" I felt several slams against my chest plate.

"Ugh…" I slowly started getting my sight back, seeing one Donut standing over top of me.

"Donut?" I pushed myself up, feeling my head throbbing with the effort. "What happened?"

"You were shot in the head, so I gave you CPR." He said.

"CPR?" Well… that was the dumbest thing to ever save my life. "That doesn't make a lick of sense. Stop speaking witchcraft and help me find that blue bastard that shot me."

"Sir…" Donut replied. "They're gone. We were attacked by a Flash. It almost killed us. They wounded it and then took off. I overheard something about Sanctuary… or something. They headed north."

"Headed north, huh…" Smart bastards. The more north they went… the less danger they were in. Stupid zoning laws! "Gather our forces, we're going to make them pay."

"Didn't you hear me? There was a Flash. Everyone ran away. And everyone inside the museum is dead." Everyone huh? Well, I guess the two of us will have to get our revenge the old-fashioned way. "Donut… grab my shotgun."

"Gladly!" He replied too enthusiastically.

* * *

 **Cearbhail:**

And now... we start slowly back down again. Time for the story to slowly begin incorporating other characters like Danse and the Mechanist.


	6. Safe at Last

**Cearbhail:**

 _You know... I'm really happy with this chapter. We finally get to meet some better characters. I can't wait to begin their part of this story.  
_

 _Enjoy ^^ ..._

* * *

[Nate]

I'm a little worried now. When I went up to see if Nora had returned from Concord, not only did I find out that she never returned, but that Jane Smith went with her… and that Jane smith was actually a Russian. Gomez told me everything that happened since we left. Jane went with Nora down to Concord, and then… the kids all sat down while the adults looked for supplies: food, tools, anything. By the time John and I made it back to the vault entrance, there were a few piles of collectible resources. I could see wrenches, screwdrivers, nearly undestroyed bottles, rolls of duct tape… parts stripped from cars. Old radios. Everything.

I nodded to the small piles of parts. "That's a good start." I nodded to Gomez. "So… Jane left with Nora?" He nodded.

"Yes. You should have seen it. The two of them clasped hands, called each other commies. And I did not know Jane spoke Russian. What a time to be alive." He smiled as he ditched a spent cigar.

John smirked. "Speaking Russian?" He started chuckling. "Oh boy will I have some fun tonight." He cleared his throat. "I guess I no longer have to hide the truth; my wife's real name is Natasha. She was a spy for Russia. We had to hide her secret identity when she defected to America, so… that's why I call her Jane. I guess America has other issues to deal with these days…" He gestured to the sprawling wasteland around us. "So… I guess we no longer need to hide her past. Just call her Natasha from now on. If she broke character, she must have felt it was time."

Everyone looked to me next. Was I supposed to say something? "What?"

Gomez motioned me to speak. "And… your wife?"

I shrugged. "Oh, come on. Like you didn't figure out what she was when she jumped for joy at the falling atom bomb."

"There were other times too." John said, scratching his scratchy beard. "Like that one time I saw her working on that fanfiction; I caught her eye in the laptop. She glared at me and before I knew it, I was upside down hanging in the tree with a piñata shoved through my chest. Tiny children were smacking me with sticks…" He shivered. "She was… quite the private person."

I shrugged at that. "That wasn't proof of her being a Chinese assassin."

He shook his head. "The fanfiction was called Hunger America Games. The main character was a young Chinese girl raised in a small suburban town with two parents from China, one of which was a runaway agent. The parents were found out by the government and the whole family was thrown into a prison camp. The parents and the child were separated from each other and the girl had to survive her time alone by fighting against other captured Chinese children in betting rings. Sometimes to the death. She was struggling with killing her love interest, a guy named Nathan." Oh… my full name. I never did get to read that fanfiction. "By the end of the book, they end up wrapped in small layers of metal that somehow help them survive being shot at by the guards as they escape the prison compound. I wish I could have seen how the two love birds survived… but… that new chapter was supposed to be out two days after the bombs fell." Damn, and to think… all those anxiously waiting people died without ever knowing how it all ended. I wish there was time to finish what we started before terminal illnesses get the best of us… or nuclear bombs. It sure is ironically funny to think that… some writer may end up dying before ever finishing their massive project. All because of some stupid illness.

"How did you even know that?" I brought myself back to the present issue… how he knew that much about my wife's fanfiction. There was no way he got all of that from a small glance at her computer screen.

John looked away. "I might have… noticed the title and looked it up. Had a good read… you know? She's a brilliant writer, underappreciated though. A little wacky, but still so very... no wacky works." He patted my shoulder, nodding his head in mild respect. He looked me in the eye, saying, "You found a weird one. You better keep her."

I nodded back. Was this really a conversation we were going to have? "Um… yes, sir?"

He immediately relieved his hand from my shoulder, straightening up. "Oh right… army men. Can't be doing that Navy stuff right now, can we…"

Gomez snickered at hearing that. He arched his eyebrows whimsically, pulling up a cigar from his suitcase. "God, I miss the Navy." He lit it up, taking a deep breath before looking at us. "You haven't told us what was going on down there. We could all hear your pistols going off; mind telling us?"

I glanced at John. He shrugged so I looked back at Gomez. "We… met some… locals? And, before we go down there, I just want you to know… we're all one big, giant… _friendly_ family. Ok? So… no matter how… grotesque they look on the outside, they are just like you and me."

Morticia started squirming in her dress, hugging her self awkwardly. "Oh… stop speaking so dreadfully; you had me at 'grotesque'. Let's go say 'hello' to our new neighbors."

Gomez raised his eyebrows at me, nudging me on the shoulder. "You heard the lady; let's go make some new friends."

"Can I play with our new friends?" Wednesday asked as she walked over to her father.

He nodded. "I'm sure they'll love to play with us."

She looked over to me. "Do they bleed?"

I shrugged. "I think?"

She smiled. "I can't wait to find out."

That one line with her straight face and very focused eyes sent shivers down my back. I looked over at John; he looked just as shocked to the core as I was. "I think we're afraid of the wrong people."

He nodded. "Wish we had her during the war. China would have surrendered on the spot."

Oh well. Time to go down with our supplies and hopefully… keep the peace between us and the Centuriants. I just hope the Addams don't ruin it for us.

…

[Nora]

That town better be cleaned of any and all bugs before I get there. If there's even one centipede or cockroach… I'm going to blow up the town and walk away with my middle fingers in the air.

The walk back to Sanctuary was going pretty easy. There weren't any threat attacking us; the Flash was gone as far as we knew. We just walked while Preston gave us a long lecture on just how screwed up the world is. Since he noticed Natasha was wearing her blue Vault 111 jumpsuit, he quickly figured out that we were from Vault 111. After learning that, he pretty much assumed that we knew nothing of the world as it was now. Especially since we had no idea what the Minutemen were, or a Flash for that matter. As it was, it was a very nicely worded presentation with flashcards and everything. Even a holographic display chip filled with charts and pictures for Willow Wisp to project in front of my power armor. For Natasha and I… it was a great thing to have. Intelligence gathering for the win!

I had to admit, it was nice to learn something about this world. We set out to see what we could learn in Concord, and we did just that. We learned a lot of new stuff, including facts about the Gunners, ghouls, sweet rolls, Deathclaws, the Minutemen, the Institute, and the Railroad. I liked the idea of the Railroad. Someone fighting the Institute. I don't quite know much about the Institute, but I do know that everyone is afraid of it. They make robots and stuff. They're post-apocalyptic Japan. Sort of.

The walk to Sanctuary was going great though. The power armor was starting to get stuffy; I'm just glad I wasn't wearing the helmet anymore. The legs were still pretty heavy to lift up, and boy… it takes a lot stamina to keep them moving forward; I'm starting to see why soldiers needed to be augmented to use these things regularly. My well-built bounce toy of a husband earned the right to wear one of these things. Me… I'm not as strong; I'm breathing heavily just to keep this thing going.

"Hey… anyone want to trade me?" I asked to the group.

Preston looked over to me. "Are you sure?"

I nodded. "I'm so tired. Remember… I killed half a village of raiders without even wearing this. I'm not a power armor girl. I like my mobility." And not stuck wrapped in armor like a can of sardines.

Preston shrugged. "I'll jump inside for you."

"Thanks." I pushed the released button in the right hand, and immediately I felt the back end lift up. Nice cold air brushed the back of my spy clothes and I stumbled out of the power armor. I nearly tripped on my own worn out legs, but Natasha was there to catch me.

"I gotcha, love." She said as she stopped me from falling backwards.

Preston climbed into the armor. As soon as it closed, he wiggled around. "Wow… um…" He shifted some more. "Jeez… is this what it feels like? Wow. No wonder you wanted out." He looked at me. "I'm sorry you had to wear this thing. That pinching in the butt…"

Oh… I thought I had imagined that. "Yeah… it gets worse as you walk."

He started walking and just in a few steps he was already shaking his head. "Nope. Not doing it." The backside popped up and he jumped out, grabbing his butt. "I'm not getting butt raped by a tin can."

Mama Murphy raised her hand. "I will take one for the team." She climbed into the suit next. When the suit closed, she moaned happily. "I missed these moments." She started leading us to Sanctuary. "We better hurry. I'm too old to keep this up for long."

So, onto Sanctuary we continued. I could already see the bridge ahead of us. Behind us was the old Red Rocket gas station. Right where I found my favorite dog: Dogmeat. I looked down at him, smiling as he stared up at me with his tongue sticking out to the side. He panted happily as I rubbed his head, shaking his ears as I did so. He's a good boy.

I bent down to give him some praise. He deserved it. He's my good boy.

…

[Dogmeat]

Oh… the human is about to say something to me. I wonder what it would be.

"Who's a good boy?" She said enthusiastically as she grabbed me by the scruff near my ears, giving me a fun little shake, helping me massage my weary body. "Who's a good boy?"

That was a potent question. I mean… who exactly in this world can determine what is 'good?' And by who's standards would we consider ourselves 'good?' Any one person might have their own independent idea of what 'good' was, but… who among us in this forsaken world of ours could point their fingers at another and say… 'You're a good boy?'

"You are!" The human plaything poked at my nose.

What? I'm good? She was declaring that I, among this wasted place of a world, was good?

"Yes, you are! You're my good little doggie-woggie!" She put her face really close to mine, shaking her own head to the side as she played with my face.

This was amazing! I was good! I'm a good dog! I had to tell Father this. I activated my installed radio transceiver to the Institute, calling up Father.

 _Yes, D2-23?_ The voice of Father formed in the back of my mind.

 _Father, I have news._ I replied back to him.

 _Well, let's hear it._

 _I'm a good boy._ I replied back enthusiastically.

I heard a massive sigh of resent followed by a small silence. _Yes… yes you are. Now, back to your mission. Find Shaun's parents and keep an eye on them._

 _Yes, Father. I'm heading up to Sanctuary now, they might be there looking for him._

 _They were just released from their freezing pods a few hours ago. You should have run into them by now._

I looked up at the cute human woman petting me on the head. I wondered if she was one of the parents I was assigned to protect and watch over. I wish I could speak in human and ask her, but… alas, I'm just a dog Synth. Model 23. My 22 predecessors were all killed in the Capital Wasteland following some wanderer.

"You're my bestest little buddy in the whole world!" The human hugged me close to her, and I caught a smell off her hair. My analyzers went right to work and I got a 100% genetic matching off her. She was one of the parents I was assigned to protect. Well, I guess I'm stuck with her then. Good… I like her. She rubs my belly.

 _I found the woman parent of Shaun. 100 % genetic match._ I reported back to Father.

 _Good, keep my her safe._ Father replied. _If you find the father of Shaun… bite him in the balls for me._

 _Will do. Dogmeat… signing off._

…

[Nora]

"You're just the cutest dog I've ever met! And so smart!" I couldn't get enough of this dog. Realistically, I'm probably more thrilled that there are _any_ dogs left in the world, at least ones that aren't mutated or robotic anyway. "Let's go to Sanctuary and kill all the bad things living there."

Dogmeat barked enthusiastically back to me, jumping to his feet as he did so. His tail wagged madly as he got ready to go fight some baddies.

I readied my pistol, looking back at Natasha. "Hey, scan Sanctuary. See if it's safe for us."

She nodded. "You're thinking like me then." She pulled up her new pipe rifle, looking through the scope. We stood around for a few seconds before saying, "Well then…" She cleared her throat, looking up at me. "You're not going to like it." She handed me the rifle.

I brought it up, looking through the scope as I aimed it at the town. I had to move it around a lot, but I could see a lot of human-sized ant-centaur things. The same ones I saw eating the wounded raiders I shot at. They thanked me for helping them and then went to town on the raiders. I was weirded out by them then… and seeing them now… I wasn't any less weirded out. There were so many of them, like… fifty of them. What I found interesting was seeing Nate standing next to a smaller, redder, ant-centaur thing, talking to it like it was nothing. The rest of the vault dwellers were moving back into their old houses, which looked partially destroyed. Man… it would take a long time to fix all of that. What was going on down there? The ant-things were… our friends?

"Well then." I handed the sniper rifle back to Natasha. "Let's go say hi, shall we?"

She nodded. "Will I be needing the rifle?"

I shrugged. "Keep it handy, and keep at a distance until I wave to you. We don't know if they're friendly yet. Could be our husbands were captured."

Natasha was quick to climb up the Red Rocket to the roof and set herself up there. When she had her sniper rifle set up, she gave me a thumbs up. I looked at the small group. "Ok, let's get in there and hopefully… not have to kill every bug. Just the ugly ones."

Preston shrugged. "I've met these bugs before. They're called Centuriants… they were part of the Minutemen back in the day."

I sighed. "And _what_ happened to your precious Minutemen?"

I glanced at the ground, hesitant as he said, "A Gunner infiltrated it, sabotaged the entire organization, sold us out to the Gunners, and caused a mass genocide in the town of Quincy, the destruction of the local Minutemen, and caused the whole Minutemen to fall apart to internal struggles and leadership power grabs."

I nodded. "And you think some _bugs_ might not be capable of that too? The Minutemen fell apart… and your bugs weren't there to support you when it did, were they?"

He shook his head. "No…"

I smirked. "So, we'll go in suspecting they'll be hostile. So, fingers on the triggers and be ready to fire upon their horde."

I took charge. Natasha threw me her other pistol, nodding a farewell to me. "See you on the other side."

"You plan on dying?" She asked.

I shook my head. "No… I meant the river. I'll see you on the other side of the river!" She nodded to me and I started walking across the bridge. Time for a little pest control. I'm always cleaning up after my husband.

The walk across the old worn bridge wasn't so bad. We'd have to fix it up though. Still, it wasn't a bad walk. The planks felt firm, and the bridge wasn't wobbling as we walked across it. I thought that at least the power armor would have broken a few loose planks, but that never happened. Weird.

We reached the other side of the bridge without any interruptions. I could even see Nate waiting for me at the entrance to Sanctuary, a whole mess of bugs standing behind him scanning me and my two pistols. I smiled as I walked up to Nate, giving him a big hug. "Is it a trap?" I whispered into his ear.

"No, we had a small war, but we're all settled now. We're at peace." He patted me on the back. "Do not kill any of them. They outnumber us and they're actually not bad once you get to know them."

"Are you lying to me to protect us?" I just wanted to make sure we had an understanding.

"I swear to you by all that is my massive muscles that we're not in any danger here." He replied.

That was good news. I looked back at Natasha, giving her a good wave. I saw her stand up and jump off the roof, sprinting over to us.

I looked back at Nate. "Well, I have someone to introduce you to." I pointed to Preston. "This is Preston Garvey…"

He stuck out his armored hand. "Name's Preston Garvey, Commonwealth Minutemen. To protect people at a minute's notice: that was the goal, the mission statement. So, I joined, thought I'd do some good. And then, well, I ended up in this small town called…"

"And that's a story for another time." I said to Preston.

He glanced at me, nodding. "Ok. Listen… your wife was a godsend. She saved my life and the life of these wonderful people behind me. We didn't know this town was going to be populated, but we've been searching for Sanctuary for a long time, faced a lot of bad things along the way. Do you mind if we take shelter here… perhaps even live here?"

Nate nodded. "Come on in! We only just got here too. No sense kicking you away when we need all the help we can get. You probably know this place better than we do."

He nodded. "Yeah… the Commonwealth can be a dangerous place. Less so if you're prepared." He smiled as he glanced at the sign that read _Sanctuary Falls_

"Sanctuary Falls." Preston shook his head. "Not today it doesn't." He looked at me. "I think this is it. A place we're finally safe at. Sanctuary." Safe, huh? I guess. I mean… how bad can this place be?

"I think you're over-exaggerating. This place can't be so bad… can it?" I looked down at Dogmeat. He looked friendly. I bet the Commonwealth is filled with great people that all want the same thing… a safe world to live in.

…

[The Mechanist]

I cannot wait to start helping the good people of the Commonwealth. After I finish writing in the primary objective for all the robobrains to process to the other robots, I can begin using this robotics engineering facility to begin building my own protection service force. My robots will be the driving force for good in this world; I can already see it. My little police force of robots will rush out in the Commonwealth, eager to assist the good people with their daily lives. Help clean up the trash, and deal with the raiders and whatnot.

I sat down to the Objectives screen. I cracked my knuckles, shaking my neck loose as I bent down over the laptop keyboard. "Primary Mission: To protect the people of the Commonwealth from any hostile dangers. Destruction of any hostile forces; mostly raiders with guns. A raider is a human living in the outskirts of civilization, usually dressed in scrap metal armor, could be wearing anything really. Some live in complex settlements, some travel. Most carry guns, but not all of them. Destruction of any hostile ghouls. A ghoul is any radiated human. Destruction of any hostile robots; pretty much any robot not sharing our hive mind." There, that should do it. I cannot see how this logic can lead to any potential civilian casualties.

I smiled as I looked over to Sparks. "I did good, Sparks. We're going to save the Commonwealth." I grew up in a settlement. I've had my fair share of trying to stay alive as raiders and Super Mutants tried to kill us. Oh yeah…

I bent down over the keyboard. "Kill any Super Mutants. Super Mutants are giant monster humanoids." There, now I should be done.

I watched as the robobrains sputtered for a full second before beginning their operation. Odd… it almost seemed like the robobrains were… confused for a second. Oh well, it must have been a coincidence. I'm going to begin working on my special suit of armor. Soon, the world will rest, knowing that the Mechanist is looking out for them.

…

[Mindy]

"Ok, I guess this place is as good as any." Paladin Danse said.

I sighed as I looked at the old police station. I had to admit, there were some good barricades set up already. This place did look slightly more defendable than that old apartment building we tried to take shelter in only a few days ago.

Paladin Danse looked down at me and then at Dave. "And you two…" He shook his head. "You do realize that when we get back to the Prydwen, you are going to have some serious punishment coming your way, right?"

Dave glanced at me. I know he wants to rat me out; heck I would if it was _his_ fault we were out here. As it was, I was the one that convinced Dave to come with me as I snuck off the Prydwen to follow Paladin Danse and his scouting team into the Commonwealth. The guy had just been promoted to Initiate on his 15th birthday, and I wanted to celebrate it by sneaking out of the Prydwen and see what the Commonwealth was like. He had to come along, because if he didn't… there would be a lone 14-year-old squire out getting herself into trouble… and Dave wouldn't like that. So, he tagged along with me.

Paladin Danse seemed to take our silence well. He only sighed, saying, "You two should go see if there are any supplies in the police station. Take Knight Rhys with you."

Knight Rhys, the grumpiest person I've ever met, nodded to me. "Come on, you two. And no side-chatter."

"Before you go." Paladin Danse said, "I just want to make something very clear. We might just be on a recon team… but make no mistake, our mission is very vital to the Commonwealth. So… what's our mission?" He looked down at Dave and me.

I looked at Dave. He straightened his back, looking like a proper soldier. Yeah… proper soldier. For a 15-year-old Initiate, he sure looks lanky and dorkish. I'm surprised he even made it this far into the Brotherhood of Steel. "Sir, our mission is to find rare technology, secure it, and bring it back to the Brotherhood of Steel for safe keeping."

Paladin Danse nodded. "Good." He looked at me. "And why do we do this?"

I shrugged. "Because we have the technological superiority, and our guns and armor are better than everyone else's so we can take what we want, when we want, however we want, and no one can say no?"

Paladin Danse frowned at that. "Squire McCready… we've gone over this many times. We do this because it is our burden to bear. We know what technology can do in the wrong hands…"

"Is that why we build massive nuclear bomb throwing robots?" I swear… this was the most innocent question I could ask right now. My settlement was hit by one such robot. And then I was 'convinced' to join the Brotherhood in the name of 'safety.'

Paladin Danse nodded. "You might not understand it yet, Squire, but… we have the best interest of the Commonwealth at heart. So, our mission still stands. We will find any rare technology, secure it, and then… we will find this Institute, find out their motives, and if they prove hostile… destroy it. And while we are here, we will continue the cleansing that this once proud nation deserves. Destruction of all Ghouls, perverted robots, Super Mutants, the Institute Synths, and anyone that sympathizes or works with, or even knows a Synth and says… yeah, I like it."

I groaned. Yeah, sounds about right. The sad thing is… I know he means it.

…

[Nora]

I was happily playing with Dogmeat. We're safe here. This Commonwealth can't be as bad as everyone suggests. Dogmeat flipped on his back, giving me his stomach to rub. "Yeah… I like you! You're the best thing in this world!" And nothing in this world is going to take you from me.

* * *

 **Cearbhail:**

And so... we meet all the wonderful people that are going to help the Commonwealth! Aren't you excited? Wait... why is everyone shaking their heads like... no? They... they're not good guys, are they? Oh... oh no...


	7. A glimpse of the future

**Cearbhail:**

 _First off, before we begin anything... we need to address the elephant in the room. I played Nuka World DLC and... the first thing I encountered was a raider named Nisha. Yes.. Nisha. Is this a coincidence or was it planted? A reference to either myself or Badlands? Possibly. It could also be a reference to the name itself: Nisha: meaning 'night' in another language; and she does wear a giant blinding helmet. Eh, who knows. Could be coincidence. Be kind of awesome if it were a reference to my Nisha though. Anyway, I killed her (all the gangs actually (I really hated having Preston hate me)) and read her diary entries... she had them. Tales of her growing up from a raider group that killed her parents and then killing the raider that raised her and becoming their leader. That's... kind of parallel to Ruby's past, right? Anyone want to question that at all? I sure did; and I loved it. But anyway, we'll get into that part of the story later. Like, possibly 30 chapters later, maybe. We'll see.  
_

 _Anyway, so... yeah... back to this story._

 _Enjoy ^^ ..._

* * *

[Nate Brannon]

 _Dear diary,_

 _Today is the 26th of October, 2087. The past two days have been mostly everyone settling in. By the time John and I got everyone settled in, Nora was already returning to Sanctuary Hills with a full crew of people behind her. And with a fresh treaty with the current residents, the Centuriant tribe of Northern Wastes, you'd think we'd have a long day ahead of us. Nope. Once Nora and everyone settled in, every family pretty much claimed any house that still stood, the Centuriants returned to their massive anthills off near the hilltops, and we all… spent the day in silent shock as to what just happened. Nora and I were in shock as we returned to our old house. The interior had been destroyed, our bed returned to rubble; our kitchen… still fully functional somehow…_

 _It was a long night of Nora and I rebuilding our bed, testing it out a few times, rebuilding it again and again… and then finally having a bed that can handle the two of us bouncing on it. By the time we went to sleep, it was already mid-afternoon the next day. We spent that day gathering whatever food we had left, as well as planning for the future. This was our home again, and everyone knew what needed to be done: water and food. Fester Addams, our chief engineer, worked on a few projects with Sturges, a seemingly intelligent builder, and Bill Russel, another engineer. The three of them took what resources we had and started getting to work. Luckily we found some old generators down in John's basement. John had planned on some kind of blackout situation and had water-powered, wind-powered, and solar-powered generators down in his basement. Three of each. That's weird, but… I'll gladly accept their help now that we don't have gasoline anymore._

 _On the 24th, we spent the day setting up our generators while Fester, Bill, and Sturges created water purification systems. Morticia, Natasha, and Nora spent the day with Codsworth hunting for vegetables and fruits: any vegetation edible really. By the end of the day, we had fresh water (not from the purifiers, but by steaming collection and boiling), a bunch of weirdly mutated fruits, and power. On the 25th, we started planting whatever small trees of fruit we could. Somehow… lemons weren't affected by the radiation. It's weird, but… eh, whatever. I'll have some lemonade. We also were able to pluck up some tomato-looking things. Taste like of like oranges. Weird. Also some Graples (grape-apples). I guess those are a thing too. Codsworth called them mutfruit though. We spent the day making sure we had our water purifiers working as well as our garden growing too._

 _On the 25th, yesterday, we decided that the best way to protect ourselves is to build a massive wall. Yes… we built a wall around Sanctuary. Amazing what you can do by cutting down some trees, tearing apart stuff built from steel, and then somehow getting them to form straight walls will do. We traveled back to Concord and gathered as much bags of cement and whatnot as possible, even going back to the Vault for things we could use. The Centuriants were pretty useful here. They're really strong; they were able to bend metal to the point that it was straight, bury more than enough of it underground to keep it in place, and to top it off… their saliva is like a bonding agent. They made us a nearly impenetrable wall for us. They even helped us build armored towers around the wall. Now… we can defend this place. We have food, we have water, we have security._

 _And now… what were we supposed to be doing again? Huh… I forgot._

 _…_

Nora backhanded me. "We're supposed to be looking for _our_ _son_!"

I rubbed the back of my head as I looked back at her. "Oh… right. I totally forgot about him. I was so caught up in making this a place we could live at."

She nodded. "No, I totally get that. If we don't have supplies and a steady place for us to live at once we find him… chances are we won't last long anyway. This is a new world, and we need to make it on our own. Dependence of currency, grocery shopping, hell even clothes made for us… we don't have those luxuries anymore." She shook her head. "Now… we really do have to take care of ourselves. Farm land, purify water… great jingzu… I'm not sure we're up to the challenge."

I looked up at her, running my hand against her cheek. "Honey… we'll be fine. The whole town is pretty much advanced degrees of doctors, engineers, fashion designers, and… us… the survivors. And we have electricity already! Only three days and we have lights!" I pointed to the lightbulb powered over us. I pointed to the computer right in front of me. "And computers! I'm writing a history entry! Just like you thought we should be doing! We're doing fine, we just have to take it one day at a time."

She nodded. "Sorry, I was just remembering my time in China. I didn't want to have to repeat it all over again. But… you're right. We're already on a good start. We have graples, we have lemons… and hopefully, we'll have meat soon. Preston says that we still have domesticated cattle: brahmin. He'll start getting us some brought to this place. Once we get a farm set up, we'll start populating our home with them… and hopefully, we'll have a sustainable life here."

Just thinking about that brought me hope. Even so… we could sit here all day and think of ways of getting this place up and running, but we needed to get out and look for our son. I pushed 'save' on my journal entry. "Well, I think we should get going." I looked at my beautiful wife. "We have a son to find."

She smirked back, patting me on the shoulder. "Just give me a moment to change into my agent clothes."

And while she was getting dressed in that, I was changing into my old combat fatigues. Much like Nora's agent armor fitted with small layers of bulletproof Kevlar, my own combat fatigues were outfitted with a similar blend. It cost me a pretty penny back in the day, but when you're in the thick of war… you didn't care about the price of freedom… or survival. You paid that price to make sure you could come home to your family. Or… if you wanted to have one like I did. As I placed my combat fatigues on, I grabbed my old soldier armor plates, sliding them on as well. I'm surprised most of this survived the war. Between Codsworth and the Centuriants, nothing from here was raided. We still had plenty of supplies within the town that we could use to help us rebuild the town. Natasha's nano workshop was still somewhat functioning. Apparently she and John had a nano workshop in their basement. Gotta say… I'm jealous. I don't even _have_ a basement. I guess Russia had a pretty extensive research team working on nano technology. Natasha got to sneak out of Russia with one of their experimental sheets of nano tech. That's how she defected to America.

Still, I know enough to know that she knows nothing about nano technology; neither did her husband John. It's been a bit of a pet project for them, to learn how to make nano technology. Once they figure it out, they're going to try to create some kind of armor system that will make our power armor look like a cheap toy. My hat's off to them, I hope they learn how to make this technology. I don't know if it will help us any, but it would be nice to say that we've achieved a new kind of tech.

I kept running mental drills into my head as I made sure my plates were strapped on correctly. I didn't want to risk forgetting anything I had learned over the few days talking to Preston. He was an educated young man, something I thought didn't exist anymore. He managed to educate me on a great many things including the Gunners: a militarized mercenary group that preyed on the people in the Commonwealth; Ghouls: zombies, pretty much. And other than that, there were Super Mutants. Boy was John surprised when he heard they were still alive. The Super Mutants were pretty much a constant threat; like raiders and ghouls. Anything beyond that was a shrug. He mentioned the Institute as well as the Railroad, and how they were at war with each other. There was a lot of stuff going on, but even Preston didn't know a lot about the Railroad or the Institute. Only that they existed and people were afraid of them both.

There was a light knock on the wall. I turned to see Nora standing there, eyeing me up and down. "Well, don't you look like a blast from the past?"

I couldn't hide my smile as I walked over to her. "Another _reference_? Don't you think we've done enough of those this week?"

She arched her eyebrows. "Huh? Reference? What reference."

I was about to tell her about the movie: Blast from the Past, but… I didn't feel like explaining how we were kind of like the main protagonist; coming out of bomb shelter and the world was suddenly changed. The only difference was that our world was destroyed… maybe. And I'm not voiced by Brendan Fraser.

I shook the thought away. "It doesn't matter. So, you ready?"

She nodded. "Sure, but… I should really upgrade these pistols Natasha gave me."

"I need one of those." I said to her. One of the main things we didn't have were our old guns. I found them… and time was not on American-built sidearm's side. They were completely rusted shut. One pull of the triggers and the whole thing fell apart.

Nora tossed me a small rusty pipe thingy. "There you go."

I caught the airborne weapon, looking it over. It was light, really light. But… it had a muzzle, a barrel… a stock, and a feeding chamber as well as a well-built firing mechanism. But… it looked like it was built out of a lead pipe. I looked up at Nora. "What is this?"

She shrugged. "Preston calls it a pipe rifle. Thought you might want to… you know… soldier that thing to your specs."

I shook my head. "I can't build a rifle… I just know how to take one apart, clean it, and then put it back together again."

She rolled her eyes. "Follow me." I glanced down at the small disappointment of a rifle before following behind my wife. "And to think, I was impressed with you back in Canada when you correctly identified the weapons the Canadians were using and how to exploit their various weaknesses."

"M16s… very easy to jam for any reason. Water, mud… anything really. Yell at it; it will jam." We shouted as many insults at their guns as possible when we were being shot at in Canada. Eventually, ever gun jammed to the point of breaking.

She nodded. "It was so bad they had to come after us in vertibirds." Man, we were being so nostalgic today. I guess we had to hold onto something, because this world was nothing like the one we left.

As we headed for the door, we were stopped by Preston, who was actually waiting for us by our doorway. He looked slightly distraught. "Nate, Nora… I have a situation."

I nodded to Preston. "A situation? Like… not having a peanut butter mutjelly sandwich for lunch situation, or… I can't find any toilet paper to wipe my butt situation?"

His eye twitched as he looked at me. "Um… neither. I've just received word via distress channels on the radio. Old Minutemen frequencies. Someone's asking for help. I thought you two would be able to help."

I glanced at Nora. We were both thinking the same thing. We wanted to get out there and start looking for our child. If we started running around and helping out other people… we might get too distracted and never get around to actually helping anyone.

"Well…" I started to say, but I was interrupted by Zhanna.

"I'll go!" She expressed as she ran up to us. The blonde woman looked excited as ever. Knowing her ever since she moved to Sanctuary Hills… I'm noticed she's a pretty fun-loving person. I have no idea what she's like though, or what she actually did in the army.

"By yourself?" Preston turned to her. He looked her up and down. "Are you even a fighter?"

She shrugged. "Well… I did some sharp shooting when I was a little girl. I was a medic in the army, so I know a thing or two about a thing or two when it comes to guns."

Preston seemed to nod, if only to himself. "I can't send you by yourself." He looked at Nora and me. "Can you two help her?"

I glanced back over to Nora. She looked at me and then sighed, looking over to Preston. "Preston… we were about to go look for our son. We've already given three days to help this settlement stabilize. We don't know how long we were even refrozen for. We need to get to Diamond City as see if we can learn anything about Shaun, or where he might have gone."

Preston seemed to consider that. "Ok, I guess that's too important. There are plenty of people here in Sanctuary Hills that might be able to help." He looked at Zhanna. "Ok, Zhanna. I'll go with you, but let's see if we can get at least one more person to come with us."

"Yay!" Zhanna exclaimed, jumping into the air. When she landed, she wrapped her arms around Preston, hugging him close to her. "You'll see, I'm a good shot."

Preston seemed sullen. "Yeah… sure." He glanced at us. "Are you sure the two of you…?"

I shook my head. "Sorry, but we really shouldn't. Try the Smiths. John is just as good as me, and Natasha…" I looked at Nora.

She nodded. "She might not be as fast as me, but she has a way with long distance shots."

Preston nodded. "Yeah… sure. I'll try that."

Zhanna started pulling Preston away, "I think I know someone else that wants to join us!"

Before Preston was pulled away, he glanced back over at me, saying, "If you don't know where to start looking, just talk to Mama Murphy! I don't like her using chems but… if you think it will help, I'll only be marginally upset at you for allowing her to do some!"

Nora smiled. "I'm ok with that." She quickly grabbed my arm, pulling me to follow her in the same way Zhanna was pulling Preston to follow her. "Let's go." Both Zhanna and Nora screamed at us as they pulled away in separate directions.

I sighed as I turned my attention back to Nora. "Ok, so… we'll grab some of that jet we found in Concord and shove it in Mama Murphy's mouth! Get her bent!" She glanced back at me. "That's a word meaning heavily influenced by alcohol or narcotics, right?"

I nodded. Sometimes Nora asks me specific definitions for words that weren't taught in spy school. Tiny little phrases like that she learned while attending college and often asks me if she's using them correctly. "Yeah. Spot on."

Nora nodded, pulling me even faster as she picked up the pace. "So bent that she'll be seeing stars for weeks; grab a tape recorder and record everything she says. And that's how we'll find Shaun!"

I sighed. There was no stopping Nora now. And she continued on and on like that until we found Mama Murphy sitting in her favorite chair petting Dogmeat, Nora's favorite dog. And the one I hated the most. The damn thing tried to rip my junk off. He was disappointed to find out it was already missing, thanks to Nora.

Nora let go of me, crossing her arms. "Hey, kid. Got you a present." She tossed Mama Murphy a small dose of jet.

"I dislike that!" Preston screamed at us as Zhanna pulled him across the road.

"Nobody cares!" Nora screamed back. "Saving our son takes precedence over your feelings."

"Fair enough." Preston replied. "Zhanna, you can stop pulling me. I'm following right behind you."

"I know, but this is more fun." She said with a laugh.

Mama Murphy glanced at the hit of jet and then up at us. "Let me guess… you want me to fall down the rabbit hole and find your son, right?"

Nora nodded. "Willow Wisp?" She spoke to my Pip Boy.

My Pip Boy blipped to life. _"I'm here."_ My Pip Boy said with a light British Accent. I'll never get used to that.

"Get ready to record everything Mama Murphy says. We're getting everything." Nora tossed down three more doses of jet. She bent down to see Mama Murphy in the eye. "Are you ready? And after this… you're quitting."

"I really dislike that!" Preston screamed from the other side of the settlement. Jeez, how can he even know what's going on over here? I can't even see him now!

Mama Murphy sighed as she ran her eyes through the doses of jet. "You think I'm impervious to death or something? This much jet might kill me."

Nora shook her head. "I've done plenty of weird crap in my youth. If I can handle 16 doses of some Chinese knockoff cocaine, you can handle three doses of brahmin shit."

I glanced up at Nora. There were more and more things I was learning about her these past few days. "You did cocaine?"

"And mentats." She shook her head. "Anything to get me through the day and through my tests. Man… college was fun." She looked back at Mama Murphy. "Well? Are you willing to help us?"

She nodded, picking up her first dose. "I hope you are ready." She slammed the first dose in through her leg. "Oh… yeah…" Her eyes dilated. "I'm seeing… I'm Seeing…" She squinted, and it's at times like these that I see how deformed her face is. I've been trying my best to ignore it, but she's clearly broken her nose a few hundred times and had her face gnawed on by radiation. I hear about these ghouls and Mama Murphy fits the description pretty well.

Nora nodded. "See what?"

"I can see… the Steel Brothers… the Red Fog… Land consumed with living radiation… Land consumed with bottles… the common's diamond… a lost key abandoned by time… a man without hope, without honor… a girl lost in time… a boy trapped in a fridge.."

I shook my head. "Um… are you sure about that last one?"

She continued on like I wasn't talking. "I See the Railroad's glory turning from a white rose to a bloody one: a choice to save a life… or lose it all. I see a old room and an old man… only he's not a man… or is he not old? I see a refuge for those confused about their constructed identities…"

"What?" Nora shook her head, looking at me.

I shrugged. "I don't know."

"Atom's glory will fall upon his graced, and the port far away will stand tall in the face of destruction, all lives hang on one to make the choice…"

"Our son! Tell us about our son!" Nora almost screamed.

Mama Murphy's eyes darted around. "I see him… in the diamond."

Nora nodded. "Yes, Diamond City. Where?"

"Second floor… house owned by Kellogg … Nick Valentine knows the way…"

"Nick Valentine?" We both asked. That was very specific. That was someone we both knew. And Preston mentioned that some people survived the war: becoming ghouls. Was Nick still alive then? Was he a ghoul?

Nora nodded. "Nick Valentine in Diamond City. He'll lead us to Shaun." She looked over to me. "I think that's all we need."

"Before this land can come to peace the shroud will fall; the Overboss will bring her fury; the boy will have his ass kicked, the girl will be hit; the independent fort will flood, the rice men screaming for it to end; the Steel Brothers' ship will sink, their iron giant saluting the wrong flag… the Railroad will be derailed… and the Father will laugh as everything burns around everything he's built. All will hail our new overboss with her disciples behind her. And Nisha will be referenced _many_ times…"

Mama Murphy's eyes returned to normal. She reached for her head, grabbing it like she had a splitting headache. "Oh… that was a trip."

"And finished." I said to Willow. She blipped back out to nothing, sleeping on my Pip Boy.

Nora smiled, sticking out her hand to shake Mama Murphy's. "You're amazing! I didn't think it would actually work, but… you said a lot of stuff."

"I _saw_ a lot of stuff." She shook her head. "And… I'm begging you. Please… don't leave Sanctuary. You'll only lead us all to more chaos."

That caused us both to pause. Nora glanced at me. "Nate?"

I shook my head. I looked back at Murphy. "What do you mean?"

She looked up at me and right as she was about to say something, her head rocked back. She let out a small groan, slinking into her chair. And she stayed like that.

"Um… did she just die?" I looked over at Nora.

She nodded. "I think so…"

Well… shit.

…

[Preston]

"So, I was talking with John and Sam. They both served in Anchorage… well, we all did, but still. I was only a private; Sam Aldrich was a Staff Sergeant, and John Smith was a captain so… yeah… anyway, I bet Sam and John will both join us." Zhanna said, dragging me with her to where the two officers lived.

I could feel that both Nate and Nora were doing something I hated, and I couldn't let them get away without knowing how much I detested their current action. "I hated that!" I screamed to Nate and Nora.

"I still don't care!" Nora screamed back.

I turned my attention back to where Zhanna was leading me. I had to admit, the settlement was shaping up nicely. Fresh water, defensive towers were set up, fresh food. Everything we needed to survive. Good. Perhaps I could leave now that I know that this place is on its way to becoming a nice home to the survivors of the Quincy Massacre. I could almost remember the screams of everyone I lost reverberating in my ears; the sound of fat mans going off. Having to duck and hide behind the crumbling walls of the old church, holding my own breath as the ground underneath me shook; power-armored raiders taunting me as they looked for any survivors… holding Isabel Cruz in my arms as she slowly died. The love of my life… slowly dying in my arms…

Before I knew it, I was brought back to reality with Zhanna shaking her hand in front of me. "Yo! Wake up!" She waved her hand at me. "You back?"

I quickly nodded. "Yeah, I'm here."

She motioned to the two older gentlemen gathered before me. "So, I talked it over with Sam and John…"

"You will address us as Aldrich and Smith, private." The older gentleman with a groomed mustache said.

Zhanna waved it off. "Yeah, yeah. Anyway, they're excited to help you out. So… are we good to go then?"

I glanced at the two men. I guess having two trained soldiers would be great. "Ok, so… there's this settlement to the east. They're requesting help. I don't know what to expect, but they were talking about raiders. Bad guys with guns. Do you still want to help?"

The man with the mustache nodded. "I joined the army to help people. I won't let some lowlife robbers push people around."

The other bulkier bald guy nodded. "Aldrich is right. I can't turn a blind eye to anyone being treated like crap. I guess we're both coming with you."

"Yay!" Zhanna jumped for joy again. She grabbed me by the arm, pulling me towards her. "Looks like we're a squad now!"

"Not without me, you're not." I heard a thick accent and turned to see Natasha walking up to us, still carrying around the laser musket I gave her. I could see that it was augmented with a newer scope, a longer tubing installed, and the cranking system was replaced with a fusion core. A fusion core? How did she even figure out how to do that? We use fusion cells for a reason.

"Babe, you're joining us?" John Smith asked as he turned to look at her.

She nodded. "You can't leave me here alone with the Addams… and Bill. Nora's leaving with her man to go find their son, you're leaving to go help people. I sure as all hell not going to sit here on my thumbs. I'm one of the best snipers the war's ever seen; and I still want to gather more intelligence on this apocalyptic world of ours."

As I looked around at the faces of the soldiers standing around me, I suddenly had hope again. I was the last of the Minutemen… and I thought that I was going to die in that museum. I was ready to die; I was ready to rejoin my friends on the other side, if there was one. I thought that there was nothing more I could do to protect this home of mine… and now… I see these faces, these… soldiers from another age. All of them fighters in the old war, experienced soldiers. I've seen what Nora and Natasha could do; if these three others were half as good, I had my own personal army right behind me.

I couldn't help but crack a smile. "Well then… let's get geared up and ready to go. I'll message the settlement, see if they can tell me their location. If we hurry, we might make it before the sun falls."

Zhanna looked up at the sky. "It's barely even afternoon."

I nodded. "We still don't know how far away they are, and we still need to get ready. That's at least an hour or two."

John Smith scoffed at the idea. "Give us two minutes. And Private…" He looked at Zhanna. "You better remember the fundamentals. Rules on Light and Sound specifically."

She nodded. "None, sir."

"Exactly. So, while we're out: we're on patrol. And that means if we make too much noise, we'll attract trouble. We don't want any trouble that we don't start. So, all that yelling: stop it."

She nodded again. "Yes, sir. Sorry."

I found myself smiling. It was like being back in the Minutemen again. "This is great. I'll go call the settlement; let them know we're on our way." Maybe my luck was beginning to turn around again. Perhaps… perhaps I could rebuild the Minutemen. Now, that was a thought.

* * *

 **Cearbhail:**

So... Nisha might become a character in this book... maybe. And you can BET that I will throw Cecilie in here for that one scene to puff up her face when she hears the name "Nisha" like she did for "Erandur". And then get all pouty when she finds out that she's not related to her Nisha at all.


	8. Ghoul Down for What?

**Cearbhail:**

 _I was stuck on this for a long long time. So... I forced it. It came out well, i think. I love how it ends.  
_

 _Enjoy ^^ ..._

* * *

[Preston]

I almost felt like I was back in the Minutemen again. I'm sitting around a camp, a fellow soldier stoking a building campfire, tossing in whatever sticks he can find. From what I've learned, his name is Sam Aldrich. He was a Sergeant in the armed forces: communication specialist. I did not exactly know how well the military trained their communication experts, but when I handed him my radio, he managed to make the thing work better than ever. Even linked it together with a Pip Boy he found in the old vault. The whole squad now has these… computer devices. We have our own channel set up as _Minute's Notice_. I guess it's to let us communicate with each other in case we stray too far from each other. Luckily, we have speakers and transceivers in these Pip Boys. Makes taking to everyone a lot easier. Each Pip Boy has its own private call-up too, letting me talk to specific people whenever I need to. I really had to thank Sam for this tech; he managed to set it up in only a day.

We planned to leave the town two days ago, when Nora and Nate left Sanctuary Hills, but we got bogged down with building our traveling kits, not to mention these Pip Boys and whatnot. Zhanna also had a bit of a training regimen John wanted to put her through; to see if she could even survive out in the wild. I watched her do her thing, and I had to admit… I was impressed. Zhanna might not look like it, but she's fast on her feet. Clumsy though, and that reminds me of an old friend I lost not too long ago: Isabel. I try not to think of her, and how much Zhanna reminds me of her… but sometimes… I just can't forget her. I held her in my arms… she was dying… There were shots being fired all around us… and I couldn't leave with her in my arms. I had to get out of there… and she was dying…

I abandoned her.

…

I had people I needed to get out of Quincy. I had people that I _could_ save. … That doesn't make what I did right. And when I see Zhanna… I see Isabel. I didn't want her to come with us, but… she's here. Working on her pipe rifle, trying to figure out how it works. John is standing over her shoulder, teaching her proper ways to pull the barrel off, take the rifle apart so that it can be cleaned efficiently. I offered to give what remained of my old squad's laser weaponry to everyone, but John waved the idea off, telling me that everyone would be better handling something from their generation… something that fires off bullets instead of impossible red beams of heat. Jeez… it's not that hard to figure out. Point and shoot. Same concept, different dancing tune. Instead of heavy metal and pop… you get dubstep.

And while those two were taking apart their pipe weapons, we had our sniper Natasha on over watch. She had a little nest built up in one of the trees, looking out at everything she could. I did not know where she got the fancy night vision goggles from, but she had them slid up on top of her head, ready to be pulled down whenever the sun began to set. We're camping here for the night. We're about halfway to the settlement that called for help. It's been two days… I doubt we'll be any help at this point. Bad people don't just sit around and wait for us to show up before they start killing people. To expect otherwise is stupid. That's why the Minutemen fell apart: we can't be everywhere. That's why the whole Commonwealth was united as their own army. We stuck together in close-knit communities, settlement, to help keep each other safe. We farmed, drank clean water, and built shabby houses out of loose board wood, a few nails, and a few sheets of metal. That simple. It was a simple way to have a simple life. And it worked.

I glanced up at Sam. He was busy trying to set up a log on the slightly building fire. "You know… my CO would berate me for doing this in enemy territory: building a fire. Creates a lot of visibility; a lot of smoke too. Sound, light, and smoke. Those are all things that lead bad things towards us. Any smart… what do you call them, raiders?" I nodded. Sam grunted, shaking his head. "Any smart raider will likely come investigate, get a good look at us… calculate what it would take for him to take us down, devise a cleaver plan and then…"

"We got movement." Natasha said from above us. She brought up her sniper rifle, fashioned out of one of my spare laser muskets. She peeped through her scope, lifting her head up as in uncertain on what she saw. She looked through again. "Um… sir? Remember those raiders we fought in Quincy? They're marching up to us. They're being led by the one I shot in the head. I'm not going to lie… I'm surprised he survived that."

John looked over to Natasha. "Think you can take them all down?"

She nodded, lifting up her rifle. "Oh… this shot will kill all four of them." She paused, bringing the rifle back down. "Um… is that one wearing pink armor?" She glanced down at me. "Ok… so two of them are wearing red armor… one pink… and one's orange. Is this like a gang thing?"

I shook my head. "Not really. Raiders are weird though. They all try to be different than each other by doing stupid stuff. So yeah, I guess it's a raider thing."

Natasha glanced back down her rifle. "Ok, just thought I'd ask. Killing the red one first."

Before she could even pull the trigger, I could hear, "Don't shoot!"

Natasha clicked her tongue in annoyance, bringing her rifle down.

"We come in peace… sort of."

"Simmons, don't lie to the enemy. We're going to sneak up to them, spring our mighty trap, and then dance on their graves." A deep grumbly voice screamed over the hills towards us.

"Oh yeah… because no one heard that."

"Shut up, Grif. Just follow my lead…" The leader, I'm guessing, wearing a red painted aviator helm, poked his head up from the hill above us. Great strategic spot… I'm impressed. I glanced up at Natasha. She was already bringing her rifle up.

"Hello!" The pink one waved to us. "We thought we'd be festive and bring you a fruitcake! It is Halloween after all."

Simmons sighed. "Donut… the fruitcake is a Christmas tradition, and Halloween isn't until the 31st of October. Today is the 28th."

Donut smiled at Simmons, flashing his teeth. "Oh, where's your holiday spirit, Simmons? Every day is fruitcake day in my book!" He lifted up the large wrapped cake, waving it towards us. "We come in peace!"

"And we'll leave you in PIECES!" The red leader screamed, raising up a shotgun. "CHARGE!"

Natasha let off one warning shot, hitting the leader near the foot. He quickly jumped back, surprised at the red beam of light nearly slamming down on top of him.

"Retreat!" The red leader took off in the opposite direction.

The other three just watched as he fled away. The only other one, Grif I'm guessing, sighed heavily as he turned around. "Great, we walked all this way for nothing. Figures."

Simmons nudged him in the arm. "Well, at least we're not dead. That's a plus."

"Shut up, Simmons."

"You two want some fruitcake?"

"Shut up, Donut." Both Grif and Simmons said in unison.

The three followed behind their leader. Well, as far as weird stuff happening goes… that was a first. I glanced over at Sam, shrugging. "I'm not going to lie… I've seen a lot of weird stuff in this world… even rode on top of a massive war-roach but I've never met raiders that flee at the first warning shot. Ok… maybe I have, but never quite like that." I looked over to Natasha. "Make sure they retreat. If they attempt to return, make the warning shot a little more permanent."

She nodded. "You want mutilation, decapitation, or just grazing?"

"Grazing, unless they try to shoot you. Then do whatever feels right in the moment." John said, looking up from his broken-down pipe rifle. He looked over at Zhanna's rifle, which was broken down like his. "Ok, so, this is the firing pin, it looks like." He pointed to the small paper clip. "Which would make this the feeding chamber, the ignitor…" He started putting the pieces back together. There was a third pipe rifle they were referencing, with the inner working of the rifle still put together. "So… it looks like…"

"Oh!" Zhanna pointed to a small piece. "I see it. The small pacman goes in like this… and then you twist it, smack it against the table… and then flick it, which causes it to turn, setting it in its locked position. And this probably goes…" She started setting it inside the wooden frame. "Just like that. I wonder how the hammer works in all this…"

John shook his head. "I have no idea. I never thought I'd meet a more confusing construction than an M16 in my life but… here it is. At least those pieces were all the same. This seems… made from junk."

"It probably was." I replied back. We made rifles out of whatever we could, and shot out ammo from whatever scrap we could bend and melt.

I stood up from the growing fire and walked over to John's collection of parts. He had them all spread out cleanly, each piece had been rubbed down and cleaned to a state that looked almost good as new, if new was rusted and bent to all hell and back. It still works, but his barrel is a bit bent. I pointed down at it. "That there is.."

"A problem, I know. I can't do anything about it until we find a new pipe. It should work for short distance engagements. We have a sniper on the team, and she never misses. She'll handle those long-range situations. You will have to do them too; Zhanna's rifle is not any better than mine when it comes to the barrel problem. We tried to bend it straight but… we're afraid it will bend in the middle, cutting off the bullet, pretty much breaking the pipe." He started rubbing his five o'clock shadow. "Maybe we should just cut them short. It would give a more spread… make accuracy shit, but we wouldn't have to worry about stray rounds blowing up the barrel."

I nodded. "Short barrels are usually not so bad. We have pipe pistols. I guess this will be a pipe machine pistol or something like that. Just keep in close and don't waste your ammo and you'll be fine."

John finally nodded, pulling out his combat knife. "Ok, Zhanna. Time to customize our crap."

Zhanna nodded. "Ok. So, we're making sawed-off rifles? Ok."

I turned back to the fire. It was already getting to that time. "So, I'm sure you know this, but our water is radiated. Boiling it doesn't really do much, but it's the best we can do out here."

Sam sighed, putting a pot full of radiated water over the fire. "Are you sure we shouldn't just use the water we got from the purifier?"

I nodded, looking at the dead stag we killed earlier, dragging with us to the campsite once we had everything lain down. "We're only cooking our dinner, which is radiated anyway. Hopefully, we'll come across some Radaway later on. If nothing else, a medic can drain it out of us with a needle."

That caught everyone's attention. "No…" John said, scrunching his eyes suspiciously. "That… that can't be a real thing."

I nodded. "Oh, but it is. Same with chems. Pull it right out of you with a needle."

John started laughing, shaking his head. "Man… I couldn't get the VA to fix my numb arm problem and now you're telling me… needles can cure radiation?"

I nodded again. "Yup. Also stimpacks will fix almost any wound. Even seal up torn limbs. Not… not like reattach arms and legs but…you know… just close the wound really quickly. If you place the limb back on tightly… sometimes it will heal up with the rest of the arm. It's hit or miss, really."

"Whoa…" Natasha called from her tree branch. "What in God's crunchy earth is _that_?"

I started to stand up, looking out in the direction she was pointing her rifle at. I didn't see anything, but I could see some kind of shape moving far off in the distance, like… really far away. "What does it look like?"

She shook her head. "Like an Orc from Elder Scrolls… only… less intimidating, more… degraded, poorly proportioned, and naked. A lot of nakedness going on down there. And… they don't have junk. Like… at all."

I didn't need to think too hard, even though I have no idea what the Elder Scrolls was. The large misshapen bodies with no junk could only be one thing…

"Super Mutants." I shook my head. "Be careful about them: they're bullet sponges. Try shooting one in the head and you'll only make him mad. Lasers seem to be pretty good on them though. Burns right through them. Smells terrible though; too close and you'll probably ruin your nostrils." They weren't something to mess around with. I hated Super Mutants: they're just as much a blight on our settlements as the raiders were. Luckily for us, they have bad eyesight; they couldn't see our camp from way out there. Not to mention they don't really like crossing rivers; which we were separated by a long stream. We'd likely never see that patrol, at least not tonight.

John finished sawing off his barrel. "Ok, so we're going to put our rifles back together and then we'll have to do a test run, make sure they work."

Zhanna nodded. "Yes, sir. But… are you sure we should? The sound might attract attention."

"And we're trying to stay hidden." John nodded. "Hmm… smart. I guess we'll have to test them out tomorrow. We have pistols we can use if we need to." He looked over to Sam. "Have you found Nate or Nora?"

Sam turned his attention away from his meal to his Pip Boy. He started messing with the radio dial, trying to figure it out. "I haven't received any calls, and they haven't put any out. So I'm guessing…"

 _"we're requesting support or evac from our position at Cambridge Police Station."_

"Wait… stop." John said. "What was that?"

We listened to the silence for a second, and for a second I thought whatever it was was already over. _"This message is set to repeat. … This is Scribe Haylen of Reconnaissance Squad Gladius…"_

…

[Mindy]

"Get back inside!" Danse screamed over his shoulder. He brought his laser rifle up, firing it madly into the street as a whole horde of ghouls started stalking their way into our fortified station. There were ghouls everywhere, taking up every entrance. Nasty glowing zombie people, glowing slime dripping from their mouths… and their eyeballs glowing brighter than my nightlight back on the Prydwen. All their clothes were torn and bland… which is weird since no one ever dressed like that… ever.

"Get that fucking door open, now!" Danse screamed over his shoulder as a few ghouls pounced on him. He was in his Power Armor though, and he shrugged them off, stomping down on one he knocked over. I heard it squish and saw the over-exposed person explode like a gelatin dummy.

More and more ghouls were slowly crawling, shambling, and sprinting, howling and growling as they pushed their way past our barricades. I was pushing against the door as hard as I could, but I couldn't get the damn thing to budge. "Sir, it's stuck!" I wanted nothing more than to get inside. I heard that if you get bitten by one of these things… you turn into them.

"Move aside." Knight Rhys grunted as he pushed past me, slamming himself against the door. He hit too hard, grabbing his side in pain. "Dammit… not again." I could see the red blood on his side. He reopened his stitches he received earlier when I… accidentally discharged a pistol into his side… three times. He slid down the door, grabbing his side in pain. "I fucking hate you, McCready…" He breathed out

Haylen looked up from her radio. "Rhys! Not again!" _"Squad Gladius to any unit in transmission range. Authorization: Arx, Ferrum, Nine, Five. Our unit has sustained casualties and we're running low on supplies. We're requesting support or evac from our position at Cambridge Police Department."_ Her voice looped over the radio.

Haylen raced up to him, unzipping his suit to get to his opened wound. "Look away, Mindy. Dave! Give us supporting fire!"

I reached for Rhys's weapon. I would finally get to use one of these things! Finally! "I'll cover you too!"

I started to stand up, but Rhys was already reaching for his laser rifle. "No… initiates do not use weapons." He nodded wearily towards Dave. "It's up to you, boy. Do not… do not fail us." His eyes were heavy and they started to shut.

I looked up at Dave, who's probably only 1 year older than me, and only a few inches taller too. He looked lost in his own world, looking down at his own laser rifle, and then looking at the advancing ghouls. "Uhh… ok." Dave nodded tentatively, like a weak lost little boy, if you ask me. He turned around, taking aim, and could barely bring himself to pull the trigger as he started shooting at the ghouls, which only drew their attention to us.

Several of those ghouls hollered, turning their attention to us. Danse was too busy taking care of the left flake, as well as the center, covering four different entrances to our compound's defensive blockade. "Why the hell were we out here anyway?" I couldn't help but shout. "Who thought this was a good idea?"

"Squire McCready… shut your mouth." Danse growled out as a ghoul tackled him. Danse swatted him to the side, stomping his head flat as three more slammed into him. "We're too busy to dwell on whose fault this is."

It was at that moment, that I remembered why we were out here. I was packing up a backpack, getting ready to go see a place called 'the Combat Zone'. There was also a comic book store nearby the Combat Zone that I wanted to go check out. I've been wanting to visit it ever since I found out we were coming to the Commonwealth. I need the 'new' editions of my favorite comic books. I'm getting bored with the ones I have now. I need to know what happens in Kick Ass 2.

And as I was heading out the door, sneaking past Dave, I managed to get outside past the barricade before I heard the first groan of a ghoul hiding underneath the car. I jumped back, kicked it in the face, but I guess the ancient car had a still working car alarm installed… that somehow still worked. The car alarm went off and suddenly… there were ghouls down all around me. And everyone came rushing out of the building, responding to the car alarm. And… like the idiots we were, none of us had a key to the fucking front door, and the door closed behind us, locking as soon as we shut it. _That's_ how we ended up out here. My fault. Dammit.

I looked over to Dave, who was trying his hardest to shoot down the ghouls slowly ambling up to us. He scored one on the leg, and it started to crumble to the ground. The several behind it screeched out a challenge as they rushed forward, sprinting ahead like a classic comic book zombie. Dave screamed like a girl, stepped back, and slipped on the stair he was standing on. As he fell, several ghouls jumped on top of him.

"Dave!" I reached for Rhys' laser rifle, snatching it up before Rhys could stop me. I charged the frontline, kicking my leg out at the one clawing at Dave's face. It was my fault he was out here. It would be my fault if something happened to him. Dave was my friend… one of the only ones I had, and I was not going to let him die to some fucking mutated rave-party zombie glow stick. My heavy black combat boot planted nicely on the iridescent … um… I'm having trouble coming up with a snappy one-liner that kind of goes with the zombie condom thing I got going on so I'm just going to say iridescent Plasmus from Teen Titans if he was a featured on a Disney animated film about pirates in the Caribbean. Yeah… I'm a geek, so fucking what? I'll gladly kick in your teeth if you get between me and my comics! And movies, on occasions.

My kick was welcomed to a face full of what I assume was radiated spittle, and his face managed to mold around my boot, and I'm not going to lie… I'm digging the glowing look. Next time I hit up a party, everyone's going to see me glow in the dark. I'm my own fucking glow stick now. Great…

I brought the laser rifle down, and let's be honest… I've never fired one, but when you're inches away from a whole horde about to tear into your secret crush… um… 'best friend' you don't need training. You just need to pull the trigger. What did Hit Girl used to say right before she pulled the trigger on those crime lackeys? "Ok, you cunts… let's see what you can do." Well, it wasn't a gun most times, but I don't have my own sword so… yeah. Sorry to break the illusion, but you know. You take what you get. And I have a rave party in my hands.

I pulled the trigger, not letting go as I screamed at the ghouls. I moved the gun back and forth, the kick of the gun was minimal at best, and that's only because my hands were shaking as I swung my gun around. I tried to keep my eyes darting around; I kept trying to watch as a new head would poke up. And they did. They kept crawling up, kept trying to sneak up to us. And that's when it happened… my weapon ran out of power. I was dry. Danse was being dragged down to the ground, his weapon also dry. And… we didn't have any spare ammo. It's not like we planned on this.

Ghouls climbed over Dave, one of them biting him; two slammed into me. When I hit the ground, I tasted a sharp pang of metal on my tongue, my teeth clenching as I felt that slime envelope me. And right as I felt that hot breath on my face, that radiation dripping on my cheeks, I heard a series of _pops_.

The growling started up again, the ghouls screaming out madly. The one on top of me suddenly flew off, an even bigger blacker boot slamming down on its face as a strong-looking woman stepped over top of me. She was carrying a pipe rifle, dressed in black and gray clothes, a scarf pulled up past her nose, her long black hair pulled back in a ponytail. "Not fair…" I managed to croak out as she stepped over me.

The woman glanced down at me. "Don't worry, sweetie. We'll clean up the rest. Nate!" She screamed. "I'll get right side. You get left." She dropped her pipe rifle, pulling out two pistols. Just like Hit Girl's. Dammit. She's so lucky. And when she moved, she danced like a shadow. Next thing I knew, she was in front of the rising horde, blasting away like she was a trained assassin.

"Got it, love." I looked over to see a bulky man carrying two pipe rifles, heavily modified with drum attachments and combat knives duct taped to the barrel like bayonets or something like that.

"Who the heck are you?" I asked as the two quickly went to town. The heavily built man rushed forward, slamming his guns forward at a sprinting horde of ghouls. I watched as he mowed them down, screaming old movie quotes from Predator and Alien.

I quickly turned my attention away from them to the ghouls lying on top of Dave. "Dave!" I screamed as I rushed up to the pile. I started pulling leaking bodies off the poor boy, horrified to see him drenched in their iridescent blood...stuff. Whatever the fuck it was.

As I pulled one off the top of him, Dave was kind of fidgeting around, but not enough to be safe… yet. I started wiping as much of that crap off his face as I could, trying my best to keep any more from spilling into his mouth. I glanced back at Haylen; she was still very busy keeping Rhys stable, his wound must have been worse than I thought. He was still bleeding out.

So, with the two surprise people doing something, I turned my attention back to Dave. He wasn't breathing… and his mouth was filled with that glowing crap. Think, Mindy… think. What did they teach us in the academy?

I reached down, tilting Dave's neck to the side. Fuck! I'm not supposed to move his neck… right? I think I was supposed to keep it straight. Wait… no. His throat is blocked, I need to let it drain. So, I need to flip him upside down. That meant getting the other six ghouls off his body. Dammit, I don't have time for this!

"Haylen, what do I do? Dave's mouth is blocked with ghoul crap, and he can't breathe! And he's pinned. I can't move them before he drowns!"

"You're going to have to suck it out!" Haylen screamed back to me.

I felt my face burn with the heat of all the ghouls combined. Suck it out? Like… mouth to mouth? Nuh-uh. Not happening. I'd rather let Dave die than… well… it is my fault, isn't it? He's going to die if I do nothing… and it would be because I did nothing. Fuck!

I tried to wipe as much off his face as possible, but as I remember just how messed up I was right now, drenched in much the same shit as he was… I totally got over having to wipe it off. Kidding, I still made sure those lips were as clean as possible before I closed my eyes and I pinched his nose shut. I rammed my face down on top of his, making sure I had everything closed off before breathing in. It was immediate, like Dave was actively throwing up or something. He coughed and suddenly, all that shit was in _my_ mouth. I had a full second of pure unadulterated panic, pain… and anything else gross hit me all at once. I threw myself around, spitting it all up as Dave started coughing up what was left inside his lungs.

Dave groggily reached up, wiping off his face before he reached for his right shoulder. "Ouch…" He groaned sharply, grabbing a fresh bite wound. "That… that hurt worse than I thought it would."

"Yeah, and it doesn't get any easier to deal with." Danse said as he started picking himself off the ground. He looked around at the two newcomers. "Thanks for your help. And Squire McCready…" He looked over to me. He smiled for a second, and I thought he was about to congratulate me on a job well done. But then he growled, screaming, "Who told you you could use that weapon, Squire? If Elder Maxson saw this display, he would throw you in the mess hall for the rest of our deployment! Perhaps even make you clean up Brahman shit." He sighed, looking away. "And don't think I won't punish you. You're grounded, Mindy."

Me, grounded? What the heck does that even mean? Where the fuck can I possibly go? I'm grounded here anyway!

I looked from him to the woman that saved my life. She looked so comfortable that I wondered if she was even fazed by what just happened. Then again, she looks like an experienced mercenary. I bet they came in a hurry to save our lives, knowing full well the horrors the Commonwealth has for us..

…

[Nora]

WHAT IN THE FUCKING WORLD DID I JUST SHOVE MY BOOT THROUGH? WHAT THE FUCK ARE THESE THINGS? I THOUGHT ZOMBIES WERE JUST A JOKE! I NEVER THOUGHT THEY'D BE REAL. AND GLOWING?! THAT'S JUST… WHERE THE FUCK DO I BEGIN WITH THAT? AAAAAAHHHHH!

…

[Nate]

Wow… Nora sure looks hot when she's dressed in her assassin robes. Look at that ass. I'm so going to tap that tonight.

…

[Mindy]

Just look at their composed faces. I so cannot wait to find out who they are.

* * *

 **Cearbhail:**

I just love Nora's mind. Mindy's kind of cool too. She's going to be a vital part of the story... if not in her own twisted way. So is Danse, the Mechanist... that girl that goes to the Snyth place. And Glory.


	9. Campfire Stories

**Cearbhail:**

So _! It's been a while. Been busy with D &D and stuff. And also remaking the Khajiit Battlemage (or War Mage) But, here you go.  
_

 _Oh... and enjoy =^^=_

* * *

[Nora]

"First off, I would like to thank you two for stepping in when you did." The huge hulking tower of a man nodded his head to us. I couldn't take my eyes off his massive metallic suit of power armor, and it made me miss the old suit I left behind at Sanctuary.

"It's no problem." Nate responded, nodding his head to the massive man. "We overheard your radio chatter and decided to head this way. When we heard the screaming and the gun fire, we knew we had to come in guns blazing. I wasn't expecting to find anyone still alive though. Glad we got here in time."

The massive man smiled at hearing that. "And we're glad too. And even though you helped us, there is still more that needs to be done, if you're willing to help us."

"Help us?" A wounded man lying on the ground screamed. He was holding his side, glaring daggers at us as he tried to push himself up. "Sir, we don't need any help from these civvies."

"Civvies?" Nate's face turned red. He hated being called a civvy. It wounded his veteran pride. "Look here, I'm no civvy. I served in the army! I fought in the Sino-American War. I fought in the Battle of Anchorage. Well, part of that long campaign, but I fought in it."

"Me too." I tossed in. "I was a Chinese assassin."

Nate glanced at me. "You might not want to tell them that."

The massive man shrugged. "Why withhold any information? The more I know, the more I can trust you."

Nate glanced at him. "Wait… she just said she was a Chinese operative… and you're ok with that? Nora had to pretend she was Japanese when I married her."

The massive man shrugged. "American, Chinese… it doesn't matter anymore. If you're really from that time period, and since you don't look like ghouls, I'm guessing you were somehow locked away in some kind of time chamber. And because of this… you probably don't know much about the world. Am I right?"

Wow… he figured that out pretty fast. "Yeah, basically. We were frozen right as the bombs fell. Right before the nuclear holocaust. We just woke up, not even a week ago. It still feels like yesterday before we ended up in this new world."

The man nodded. "Hmm… I guess I can believe that. Well, anyway, my name is Danse. I'm a Paladin in the Brotherhood of Steel, an organization built on the foundation of keeping this world safe."

Nate nodded at hearing that. "So, you're like the Minutemen?"

Danse's eyebrows shot up. "The local militia? No, we're nothing like them."

I shrugged at that. "Ok, why not? You're protecting the world, right?"

Danse nodded. "Yes. You see, it was the advancement of technology that destroyed our world. Man's ability to create planet killers and other means of mass destruction quickly outpaced our own ability to compromise and delegate. Our small egos were outweighed by even bigger guns. Our technology grew too grandiose, our intelligence waned because of it. The Brotherhood understands that we don't need those fancy weapons anymore. So… we collect it. We keep it away from anyone that would misuse it."

Nate sounded intrigued. "Wow, so you're like an armed force that's trying to prevent another war like the one that almost destroyed our world."

Danse nodded. "Exactly like that. Just look around and you'll see what our technology brought onto this world. Super Mutants, created to fight evil, they learned how to make more of themselves, and just like that… they grew in size, and then they tried to kill everyone. Nuclear bombs, sent upon the very earth to silence economic opponents. And now there's this… Institute, and their Synths. Machines built to look like humans. There's never been anything so dangerous as a machine that can think and feel like a human. A living weapon that might end up taking over the whole world. Just thinking along the lines of Super Mutants, and how they went wrong, these machines could just as easily try to kill us all, and this time… you won't even know who's a Synth."

That did sound pretty bad. I had no knowledge of super mutants or how they tried to destroy humanity, but I did follow the logic behind it. "Ok, so you're different from the Minutemen because?"

Danse looked me in the eye. "The Minutemen are just a small band of farmers with laser muskets, and from what I gather, they lost their war a while ago. The Brotherhood are heavily armored, heavily trained, military-minded elite soldiers, hellbent on keeping humanity in check. And we haven't lost any wars we've started. We're determined to save this world, even if the world doesn't want to be saved."

Even if the world doesn't want to be saved? Now I'm dubious. Why wouldn't the world want to be saved? There's just something here, in his logic, that I'm failing to grasp. I can't quite catch it, but… it sounds familiar. And that's when it hit me. He's wearing power armor. He's carrying the same kind of laser weaponry we advanced to right before the end of the war. He's living in the very technology that he says the Brotherhood hates. There's the disconnect right there. I'm a lawyer… I have the ability to call bullshit. I just need to know more… maybe I'm just not understanding this correctly.

"Wait, wait…" I held up my hands, causing both men to stop and look at me. "So… the Brotherhood hates technology?"

Danse nodded. "Technology that is far too much for humanity to safely comprehend or use."

Ok… a slight difference. "So, that power armor you're wearing?"

He nodded. "It enhances my ability to fight better."

"Wouldn't that be dangerous?"

"To anyone else wearing it, yes. The Brotherhood's original mission was to collect all the military weapons, armor, and vehicles. We established our own HQ in a military fort and trained our forces, and once we had our first knights up and running, we took back a small section of land, collecting every bit of tech around. And we've been spreading and liberating people everywhere we go, collecting more and more technology, keeping it safe from hands that would misuse it."

The small girl rolled her eyes, shaking her head as she looked away. Apparently… she doesn't agree with Danse. I decided to ask her. "You, pigtails."

She looked up at me. "My name is Mindy."

"Ok, Mindy. Is everything Danse is telling me the truth?"

She looked up at Danse with a quick glance and then shifted away. "Yeah, he is. The Brotherhood loves collecting technology. But… they don't seem very good at not using it."

Bingo. I knew something seemed off. The Brotherhood was collecting armor and weapons, as well as technology, not to keep humanity from killing itself, but to establish itself as the dominant threat on this world. Become the guy with the biggest stick and no one can tell you what to do.

Danse looked back at Mindy, glaring at her. "Squire McCready, you are already in enough trouble. Silence yourself."

I looked back at Danse, arching my eyebrow. "Wow, you're just a ray of sunshine, aren't you?"

He glanced back at me, giving me a death glare. "We do not speak of the Brotherhood's secrets, no matter how trivial. What the girl is referring to is an incident that left her homeless. We were at war with a superior force, one that threatened the existence of man. And during the battle, her town was hit by one of our… classified weapons. The Brotherhood acknowledged its mistake and took her in, making her one of us. She is with us as an apology. She had nowhere else to go, so we took her in. That goes for Dave too. They were both raised in the same village. They're here with me as apprentices. We will raise them as Brotherhood, train them to become strong independent warriors, and when they turn 18, they will decide if they wish to remain in the Brotherhood. If they choose to leave, they will be ready to face the world. If they stay, they become one of us fully. Until then, they are under _my_ care, and will follow my instruction. This world is a harsh cruel place, and I will not lose children under my care. If I seem too harsh, it's only because I care too much."

I quickly silenced him by raising my hand. "Wait… you, the army that hordes technology for the betterment of mankind, used a piece of technology, leveled a whole town, and then… forcibly took in the kids… as an apology?" There was so much wrong with this organization. It's… wow.

Danse nodded. "I'm not saying the Brotherhood is perfect, but it's the best of what humanity has to offer. We keep the world safe." Apparently not good enough. Two children sitting here in a combat zone because you blew up their families is evidence of that.

Nate looked over at me, nodding to me. "Nora, I know it sounds kind of sketchy, but… I remember there being just as much criticism against our own nations."

I smirked, planting a hand on my hip as I arched an eyebrow. "War never changes?" I almost said with a laugh.

That drew a blush from Nate as he rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah… something like that."

Ok, I can live with that assumption. I looked back at Danse, and tried to remember that… humans still suck. "Ok, so you wanted our help with something. What was it?"

Danse looked at both Nate and me, and then nodded. "As you can see, one of my few remaining competent soldiers was wounded in a recent battle."

"Trying to teach the girl how to use a fucking gun…" The wounded man said through grit teeth.

"And you learned your lesson." Danse replied back. "They don't use guns until their fifteenth birthday. Especially during recon hours."

"Wait…" Nate started shaking his head. "Why wait until they're fifteen?"

Danse shrugged. "I didn't write the rules, but I see the logic behind not letting a child play with something that can end a life in a pull of a trigger." I found that to be fair enough.

"I started using a handgun when I was nine. My government was basically training me to be an assassin ever since I was five." I said to Danse.

"And when was your first assignment?" He asked me.

I had to think back. "Um… I was six… and they wanted me to kill this one guy that was trying to preach against our values. So, they sent me in, and I asked him for directions. When he pointed me down the street, I tagged him with a pin laced in what we called 'gu'. I gently stabbed the man, and went on my way. Six days later… he was reported dead. If you're asking about my first gun kill… I was nine. The same day I received the gun. My training experience was a drug cartel. I had to go in with three other trainees and kill everyone. We did that. Adults would be too… predictable. Children naturally disarm their targets by looking innocent and cute."

"Ghouls, Synths, and Super Mutants won't fall for those tricks." Danse replied back. "Whatever advantage you had a child would be a weakness. If you saw Mindy, you would have seen that she was raw with fear, shooting her borrowed laser rifle at anything, without the intention of focusing on any target. Even Dave, who's been practicing for months, was nothing more than a clumsy child with a dangerous weapon to the horde we just fought. Even I had trouble navigating this problem. I will not risk the lives of my children for some archaic rule about gun safety."

"I'm just saying, Mindy could probably handle herself better if she had been trained. She doesn't have to go out on missions, but knowing how to use a gun is never a bad thing. Just using one."

Danse looked back at his wounded soldier. "Knight Rhys, once Scribe Haylen has you patched up, teach the kid how to properly use a sidearm."

Rhys only sighed. "As long as she doesn't shoot me again, I'm fine with that."

Danse looked back at us, nodding. "Ok, so here's what you could help with. We're having trouble contacting our superiors. They're waiting for our report on the Commonwealth and our findings. Now, our local radio tower's range is too short to reach our superiors, but Haylen thought up the idea of using a nearby facility to help us boost the signal of our radio tower. The ArcJet Systems building might have a deep range transmitter, one that will help us modify our radio tower and boost its signal enough that we can contact our superiors and get the backup we need. So, the plan is to infiltrate the building, secure the device, and bring it back here. You interested?"

I looked over to Nate. "Well?" We're supposed to be looking for our son; we shouldn't be messing around with another army.

Nate glanced at me, and I could tell just how badly he wanted to do this. I guess old habits die hard. He wanted to belong to this new army. He wanted it badly. "What do you think, honey?"

I sighed. Great… make me make this decision. "Well, we're trying to find our son."

"Your son? What happened to your son?" Danse glanced between me and Nate.

Nate said without delaying at all, "While we were in our frozen stasis pods, someone came in, defrosted us, and took our son, and refroze us. We're trying to find out what happened to our son."

"The Brotherhood remembers its friends. You help us, we'll help you find your son. You have my word."

Damn, it's hard to fight that offer. I shrugged. "Fine, we'll help you out. So, when do we leave?"

"Whenever you're ready. You can resupply inside, grab whatever weapons you need, and when you're ready, we can get moving." Danse started heading for the door to the police office.

I looked at Nate, nodding. "You were complaining about our weapons. They might have some standard issue rifles and pistols inside."

Nate smiled at the thought. "It would be nice not to have a piece of pipe as my main arsenal."

Danse looked back at us. "You two looking for something stronger than a pipe pistol? We have two spare plasma pistols you two can use."

Perfect.

…

[Preston]

"Just looking at this old state map…" Sam Aldrich pulled up a small map, walking up to the small campfire we had going, "and judging on where you said this small farm is… and seeing how the world is not all that different from the time before the bombs destroyed the world… I'd say we're only two miles away. We could wait until the sun sets, and then do a night march to the farm. The cover of night would mask our movements, and as long as we're silent, we should be able to get there in less than an hour."

I shook my head. "You think this place is crazy now? You should travel at night. Ever see a man be carried away by a radbat? You don't see them, you don't hear them… you just hear the screams. The screams of your best friend, carried off into the night. The loud crunching of bones. Radscorpions are more common during the night hours, and you already encountered the Flash. They're mostly found in dense woods, and the one in town was a surprise. I don't think anyone was expecting that Flash to be there. This far north anyway. They normally keep more to the swampy south… near Quincy."

The only difference is that Flashes were not aggressive. They only went after someone if they were actually starving, or defending their location. Otherwise, Flashes were actually kind of nice. If you feed them radnuts, they could actually be trained to be something of a personal companion. An old ghoul living outside Quincy had three Flashes that lived around in his backyard. He grew a whole field of radnuts, and they loved living back there with him. They were constantly fed and he was pretty happy. Keep in mind, most Flashes reach about the size of a medium-sized dog. The massive beast Nora fought back in Concord was something else, a Black Flash, a Flash twice the size of other Flashes, twice as fast too. It's pretty scary honestly. So far, they're pretty untamable. But, when something is bigger than you, you become the prey, not a new ally.

"So, this world, just how bad is it?" John asked as he walked over, joining us by the fire.

I wish I could tell him just how bad it's been, but I just didn't know where to start. I guess with the easiest thing to handle. "Well, the Commonwealth used to be united, in a weird sort of way. We had a bunch of large settlements, and we had the Minutemen to defend the settlements from raiders and Super Mutants, as well as deathclaws and ghouls. The four cities were ready to sit down to a meeting, and become a unified nation, one that would stand strong against anything that could attack us. So, at the first council meeting, a chance for peace among the four settlements… and then everything changed, when the Institute attacked…"

"The Institute." John sighed. "We've heard a bit about the Institute from Momma Murphy. She said that they're the biggest threat to the Commonwealth."

I nodded, looking into the small fire. "It's true. No one knows much about them, and if it weren't for the older generation Synths roaming around… you'd never know that the Institute ever existed. But, it's some kind of secret science organization that conducts experiments on us. You'll often hear about people disappearing, and then a Synth copy of them show up. Sometimes, they go years, acting like everything is normal, but then… it just happens. You're just sitting there, eating lunch, and then… they pull out a gun, shoot you. The guards gun down the Synth, and that's how they learn. The Synths of today are so advanced, you'd never tell unless you blew it up first. So, yeah… I was telling you about the council. The members all joined together, were about to unite their communities with supply lines, armed guards, unite the Minutemen into a collective force strong enough to push into the lost towns, clear out the ghouls, the deathclaws, the Black Flashes… and then… some kid, not even eleven, just walks in, pulls out a nuclear grenade, tossed it in the middle of everyone, smiled… and winked.

"And that's how we learned about the Institute's new Synths. The kid, after the explosion melted his face, was examined. The examiners found robotic parts in his brain, wires traveling through the skeletal system. But he had real flesh, real blood, real organs. It was insane. It was like a hybrid human robot. The Synth was a real threat now. And so was the Institute." I cleared my throat; there was more to the story, and they needed to hear how it ended. "So, you can expect that the four towns were thrown into chaos, but something like explosion should not have ended the coalition. One town was suddenly infested with ghouls. We don't know where they came from, but they swarmed the town. The people were chased away, or killed by the ghouls. The ghouls still inhabit the town. Lexington was suddenly under attack by raiders and ghouls. And in the middle of it all… Institute Synths. In less than a month, the four towns basically fell apart. Quincy… you know what happened to Quincy. The only real town left is Diamond City. And you can thank Mayor McDonough for that. He's kept that town safe from the Institute for a long time now, even though a woman by the name Piper seems to think he might be working with the Institute."

I let them sit on that for a few seconds while I looked at the cooking radstag, hanging over the small campfire. Our dinner was coming along nicely, any minute now we'd be able to eat.

"So, basically, the Institute infiltrated the other towns, destabilized the local government, and tries to keep a small balance of power in your settlements." John said, rubbing his chin hairs. "Sounds like terrorism… and America doesn't take well to terrorism… unless it's localized terrorism. Tell me… is the Institute full of white guys?"

I shrugged. "I don't know."

"Hmm… I need more information before I decide if I hate these people. If they're not white… they're clearly terrorists. If they are white… well… I'm sure they have their reasons."

Fucking white people.

I guess they're just from a different time; here in the Commonwealth, we don't care about skin color, or… lack of skin. Hell, I hang out with Centuriants, and I like them better than most people. And the ghouls we had in Quincy were some of the nicest people I've ever met. It's just the world we live in… it sucks. We needed to band together to survive, and that's not easy. Most folks are suspicious of each other. Too many raiders, and we're not even sure why there are raiders. I mean… they're survivors like the rest of us, but while the rest of us band together to grow crops, work on building new towns, some places just want to steal from everyone else instead of doing their own work.

"Regardless of which skin they have, they've been doing nothing but bad for a long time." I said to John. "I don't care if they have Synth clones of me in their care, I would gun them down just as fast as any other person, if they were attacking innocent people." That's the Minutemen promise… to defend the innocent… no matter what.

"I'm not saying anything like that." John held up his hands apologetically. "I'm just saying… I can't judge someone without seeing them first. I have to hear their reasons. If they're white… their reasons might be more complicated than jihad or racial disparities found in our natural social structure."

I…

…

Fuck it.

I went back to the simmering meat. If we overcook it, we might burn away enough of the radiation that we basically won't start glowing if we eat it for the next few years. The meat looked like it was almost ready. "Regardless of what your logic is… the point is this. The Institute, regardless of anything else, has done nothing but do everything in their power to destroy our Commonwealth. And anyone who messes with the Institute… disappears. And anyone that associates with them… disappears with them. So, if we encounter any Institute Synths… we need to be careful. We have no idea of what they are capable of… and I'd rather not find out."

…

[Glory]

Ah, the Switchboard, my home sweet home. There's nothing like the smell of burning coffee, seeing the flickering overhead florescent lights that always annoy my sensitive eyes, and the numerous amounts of paper scattered everywhere. As far as an underground DIA facility went, it was ok. I never really liked being underground, and seeing how I spent a lot of my younger years trapped in an underground secret facility… I didn't exactly want to spend it down here for the rest of my life. But… that's the Railroad for you. Undercover facilities were necessary when you were fighting the Institute.

And in our small little hamlet were of some of the finest people around the Commonwealth, all working together to help fight against the Institute. Some of the toughest sons of bitches roosted down here in this little hole with me. Sure, sure, the Railroad is more than just this place. There are plenty of safehouses throughout the Commonwealth, but the Switchboard… well, that's the closest thing we have to an HQ at the moment. And because of that, we have some of the strongest members living under this roof. And me? I'm the strongest ever known. My name is Glory, but people call me the Angel of Death.

"Hey, Glory. Our newest agent wants to meet you." Tommy Whispers waved to me, calling me over to his table where Beatrice Bell and Songbird were joining him in some idle chat. Sitting with them was some guy. He looked familiar, but I couldn't tell why he looked familiar.

I walked over to the group, taking a chair and joining them. The overhead light was flickering enough that I had to shield my eyes, if not just to get the repetitious flickering out of my mind. "So, you're new?" I asked the kid. He didn't look a day over 17. What was he doing here?

The kid nodded. "Yeah, I just transferred here from Beacon Hill. Name's Sly Nicholas."

Sly Nicholas? That's an odd name.

I looked over to Tommy Whispers, giving him the 'you're kidding' look. "So, is he a new heavy?"

Tommy Whispers shrugged. "Supposed to be. I'm going to train him starting tomorrow. Which means… we'll need you on over watch. Oh, great sensei."

I reached over, slugging the man across his arm. "You ever call me that again, and you'll see what I still have to teach you." I looked at the kid, looking him up and down. "For a human, you don't look like much."

"For a human?" He asked, clearly taken aback by what I just said. "I… wait. Are you a Synth?"

I looked over to Tommy Whispers. "You didn't tell him?"

He shrugged. "It's not my right to do that, and you know that." He waved his hand towards Sly Nicholas. "But, you spilled the beans. You might as well educate the kid now."

I felt a heavy sigh growing as I looked at the kid. "Yup, I'm a Synth. 3rd Generation badass Courser material weapon of mass destruction. Able to bench press 400 pounds on a light day, able to lift and drag a bus on my best. I could lift you with one hand, throw you across the room, and not even break a sweat… even though us newer models do. My skin is real, so is my heart… and so is my brain. I'm very much a human… only I'm artificially created. I watched as brother and sisters were put together by a machine… bone by bone, muscles synthetically weaved together, blood pumped into our bodies… and then dipped into a flesh pool where our skin collected around our muscles. And after that, a day long process of learning how to use our bodies. Those of us that were proficient in… well… fighting, were taken into Courser Training. And me? I'm probably one of the best. Of my line anyway. I was one of the first 20 original Gen 3s. And because of that… I was also one of the first Coursers… before they became a huge thing. So… there you have it. I'm a Synth; and the poster child of what a liberated Synth looks and acts like. Proof that… we exist. And we feel. And that we can belong with everyone else… if we're only given a chance."

I nodded to the kid. "So, what about you? Why are you here?"

He shrugged, reaching into his back pocket. "Oh… you know. Just retrieving what was taken from us."

I heard a small click and just like that, there were explosions of light all around us. Synths popped up out of nowhere, all gen 2s or 3s. I even saw a few Coursers among them. I looked back at Sly Nicholas, who was only shrugging. "Nothing personal, G7-81, but… initialize factory reset, Gamma…."

"No!" I screamed, pushing the table out, slamming it right into his chest with enough force to throw him to the ground. I rose from my chair, my fellow Synths already pulling their triggers on me and my fellow Railroad agents.

Tommy Whispers was up on his feet, drawing his silenced pistol. "Glory, permission to.."

"Do it! We're on survival mode right now!" I said as I charged up to a fellow Synth. "I'm sorry." I said as I ran my fist through their chest. I choked on the dying sounds of their dying breaths as my arm exploded out their other side.

Upon seeing a Courser bringing their laser rifle to me, I swung my synthetic meat shield towards their fire, and they took the hits for me as I screamed, "WE'RE UNDER ATTACK! ALL AGENTS SHOOT TO KILL!"

There were explosions of light all around the room. More and more Synths started cycling into the fight, shooting their weapons everywhere. An agent still sitting behind the computers tried to call an evacuation but was quickly shut down as Synths shot him down.

Tommy was doing his thing, rolling across the floor, shooting his silenced pistol at everything that moved. His headshots were immaculate. If I didn't know better, I'd suggest he was a Courser-trained Synth too. You don't find precision like him among normal humans. He's something special.

"Everyone get down!" I screamed as I pulled out my minigun. As soon as I pulled it off my back, everyone in the Railroad dove to the ground. They know what's about to happen. I brought my minigun up, onehanded, and pulled the trigger. I waved the minigun around as fast as I could, aiming at any Synth I saw. Even the other Coursers weren't able to dodge the amount of ammo I was spraying around. And it was enough that I could fend off the attack.

"Glory!" Desdemona screamed from the tunnel. Desdemona was our leader. "We're evacuating! Help us get everyone out of here!"

"Got it!" I screamed. "Tommy! Get clear, now! I'll cover you!"

I waited to hear Tommy reply back, but when I looked around, I didn't see him anywhere. "Tommy? Where are you?" I glanced around. He wasn't a corpse on the ground. That's good news. "Des, I don't see him. Should I go find him?"

"No time, Glory. The Institute is on full attack. We need to evacuate everyone, including our new Synths. And you're our best heavy. Watch our backs." Desdemona screamed.

"Err… fine." Tommy, you better know what you're doing, because if you're doing what I think you're doing… you better come back to me.

* * *

 **Cearbhail:**

 _So, here we are. The fall of the Switchboard. I wanted to show it, and present Glory as an actual POV for the story. Now, I wanted to show more of the Switchboard, and show some character interaction but... I wanted to just show how ruthless the Institute can be, and with how the entire chapter has been building up how nefarious the Institute is... it seemed too perfect to waste on two chapters from now. Not to mention... Glory time. I haven't really shown her off though, so perhaps next chapter, you'll get to see her behave like the Terminator she really is._


End file.
